Purifying Brockton Bay
by Neurax
Summary: Instead of gaining the Queen Administrator shard, Taylor is bound to an entity called The Batter, a mysterious figure whose goal is to "purify" Brockton Bay. Rated M for future graphic scenes. The cover art is not mine, and belongs to its respective artist. Hiatus. Chapters are undergoing revisions.
1. Chapter 1

**A Worm crossover with the game OFF. As OFF is a rather obscure game, I am putting this in the general fics instead of crossovers.**

 **Personally, I'd recommend giving it a try or watching a playthrough. It's thought provoking and unique, and despite having been made years ago, is quite good. For a brief description of OFF, imagine Undertale stuck on Genocide run. That's a very lazy and inaccurate description however, and there is much more to the game than that.**

 **I'll be giving a brief summary in the first chapter anyway.**

 **Contains heavy spoilers for OFF.(If you don't want the game spoiled I'd suggest watching a playthrough or play it yourself before reading this fanfic.)**

 **I hope this fic isn't too OFF-ful (heh).**

 **Features a regretful and hopefully redeemable Batter and takes place after the Batter Ending. This fic will be rated T for now, but will probably be moved to M soon.**

 **Worm is owned by Wildbow. OFF is owned by Mortis Ghost.**

"Text" is normal speaking.

-"Text"- is The Batter speaking.

 **"** **Text" is inhuman speaking.**

Purifying Brockton Bay

Chapter 1 – A Regretful Batter

* * *

In a dreary place that could be only described as Limbo, a lone figure walked. The figure was tall, with a black baseball cap obscuring their eyes, allowing only eye-black, the nose, and mouth to be shown. Their outfit, upon a simple glance, made them look like a mere baseball player. The appearance of normalcy was ruined however by the color of their skin. It was white, too white to be natural. The lone baseball bat they carried had its image sullied too. If one were to look closely, they would be able to see a faint caking of what appeared to be blood on the end of the bat. All in all, their presence looked eerie and foreboding, like the painfully obvious cues one might find in modern day horror movies when the killer was about to appear.

Once, this entity was known simply as "The Batter". That "man" had a sacred mission. To travel through the zones, purifying the lands of spirits and corruption. Every time The Batter cleared a zone it would turn black and white, just as he was. There were four guardians. Dedan, Japhet, Enoch, and The Queen. Each had originally set out to become guardians for their zones, keeping the remnants of humanity moving forward. Each eventually became corrupt. Dedan abused and terrorized the people in his zone. Japhet, in his quest for recognition, killed an innocent for a trivial mistake. Enoch had a twisted cycle of giving the Elsen false happiness and used their bodies when they perished to make more sugar to continue the zone's cycle. The Queen, blinded by her desire to make the perfect world for her son, sent out spirits to each of the zones in an attempt to purify the remaining world of corruption. The spirits instead attacked the Elsen. And what of her son? The Queen was so invested in sending spirits into the zone that she neglected him. All to make the perfect world for him. Irony at its finest.

The Batter purified each zone one by one. He fought many spirits along the way. He grinded Dedan's head against a wall, crushed Japhet, broke all of Enoch's bones before purifying him, and killed his wife, The Queen. Reluctantly, he had to put down his terminally ill son, Hugo, who had no chance of a future too. And finally, when he reached the lever… The Judge was the only one who was left to stand in his way. The player reluctantly chose to assist him against The Judge, having reasoned there was nothing left worth saving, and it would be better to end it all. As The Judge lay bleeding out on the ground, he approached the purpose of his quest, the lever. He could finally turn this nightmare OFF and end it all. He pulled it, and everything went dark. He woke up later, on an endless path.

As The Batter wandered Limbo he pondered his son, Hugo. Regretting killing him would change nothing, The Batter knew as much. It had caused great pain to The Batter that his son had not recognized him. Then again, The Batter thought as he looked down upon his hand, given his true form- at this Batter's seemingly pale human hand had morphed into something monstrous- who would recognize a monster as their father? Batter's hand changed back to its fake state and he continued walking onward.

"Bonjour, old friend."

The Batter stopped.

-"Zacharie."-

Zacharie, the vendor, one who always seemed to know a little too much.

"I see you've successfully ended the world, congratulations."

The Batter's hand unconsciously tightened around his bat.

-"Have you come to make an attempt on my life? It's pointless, there is nothing left."-

Zacharie tilted his head.

"As annoyed as I am at you killing my dear friend The Judge, no, that is not what I am here for."

Zacharie gestured with his arms.

"Look around. It's as you said, there's nothing left."

Zacharie straightened.

 **"** **However, I have an offer. You've destroyed everything and are regretting it. Normally I would let you stew here for an eternity, but I'm interested."**

Zacharie pointed at The Batter.

 **"** **This is your second chance. On a self-centered whim, you chose to destroy everything. I'm curious, however, if you can actually save something-"**

 _Fwoosh_

Zacharie jumped backward, evading Batter's bat.

-"It was that women, Sugar, who was at fault, wasn't it? The reason the world went to hell."-

A yellow eye formed out of the eye black on Batter's face. It stared at Zacherie, indicating a certain ability that The Batter possessed, **Wide Angle** , was in use.

-"The secret fifth element, sugar. It caused greed. It made the Guardians corrupt. I'm no hero, but you knew about it. And the one responsible."-

Three rings appeared behind Batter, spinning circularly. The Batter pointed his bat at Zacharie.

 **-"You did nothing to stop it, when you could have."-**

He lowered his bat.

-"What are you? You look like a human, but are clearly not. You know too much. You are not a mutant like me or any of the other Guardians. Wide angle is giving me an error when I glance at you. What matter of fiend are you?"-

Zacherie gave an impression of grinning.

 **"** **Does it matter? Come, Batter, and be "purified" like everyone else."**

Where The Batter stood, uncomfortable sounding snapping noises could be heard, signifying The Batter shedding his human skin.

 **-"How ironic that I, the destroyer of this world, am the only one who is able to enact justice upon the true puppeteer of this calamity. My mission would have been unnecessary if it were not for you. Be purified like the rest."-**

 **{Play OST: Nightcore - Pepper Steak [All Levels At Once Remix]**

The Batter, at this point, had abandoned his human disguise and was in his "Bad Batter" form. With an unholy shriek, The Batter leapt at Zacharie, bat primed to purify the fellow monstrosity in human skin before him.

Zacharie caught the Batter's bat on his sword. Alpha, Omega, and Elipson all attempted to ram Zacherie and cast ailments upon him but it was to no avail. As the battle wore on it seemed both opponents were at a standstill. Zacherie could somehow teleport out of harm's way, but was unable to do any meaningful damage to The Batter. The Add-ons just kept healing him. The Batter was in a similar predicament. With one strike, he could end Zacharie's life, but he was unable to reach him.

Finally losing his patience, The Bad Batter charged Zacharie with reckless abandon. Zacharie chuckled, snapped his fingers and opened a doorway in front of The Batter. Unable to stop, The Batter charged into the portal which closed behind him.

Now it was just Zacharie. He grinned.

 **"** **Entertain me."**

 _Elsewhere, inside a certain locker…_

 _Destination_

 _Agreement_

 _Trajectory_

 _Agree-_

 ** _[DISRUPTION]_**


	2. Chapter 2

**Anyway, here's the next chapter.**

 **I don't own anything except the title of this fic really.**

 **I'm working my butt OFF writing this, by the way. Writing (a decent) fanfiction is deceptively hard.**

 **P.S. The Batter will just be referred to as Batter when it is necessary for the most part.**

 **If you've never read/seen the full story of Worm/OFF, you will be very confused.**

 **Oh yea, there's swearing too.**

Purifying Brockton Bay

Chapter 2 – Spaceball

* * *

One moment, Batter was fighting Zacharie. Then his bloodthirst got the better of him, and now, he was paying the price for it. Dammit. Apparently Zacharie was some kind of deceptively evil deity or something, because he pretty sure he wasn't in limbo anymore. Maybe this was an improvement, the Batter thought. Instead of walking down an endless road in all-encompassing white nothingness, he was now falling. Very fast. Horizontally. What a joy. He fought down an instinctive urge to flail around hopelessly, it wouldn't help his predicament. Looking around he appeared to be in a black void with tiny lights (stars?) in every direction. The fact that this place contrasted heavily with the white nothingness of limbo didn't go unnoticed by the Batter.

Suddenly for a brief second he flew past a giant SOMETHING. The Batter had no idea what it could be but whatever it was, it was MASSIVE. It made that whale look like a speck of dust in comparison. A huge black mass comprised of eyes and tentacles, it looked like something out of a nightmare. If the Batter was a lesser 'man' he might have gone insane from such a grotesque and disturbing sight. Alas, the Batter hadn't, probably due to the fact that he was a certified genocidal hardass and the fact he had just ended a world.

The Batter squinted his eyes. There was something yellow and shiny in his path of horizontal damnation. It looked like a star only… broken. The term shard seemed appropriate in describing it for some reason. As he got closer, the Batter realized if he didn't do something quick he would collide into it. Unconsciously, in a sensation that was a somewhat alien feeling similar to panic, he did the most natural thing that came to him.

The Bad Batter swung his bat.

 ** _[Disruption]_**

 _Somewhere in Earth's atmosphere, the Simurgh turned its head towards space so fast it sprained its neck. As it tried to soothe the pain, Dragon, who watched the event happen, felt a mixture of amusement, horror, and confusion._

The star shard cracked and crumbled, and dispersed into dust. The massive entity behind the Batter let out a sound of what was most similar to a screech. If the one screeching was put up to the biggest megaphone in the world. It was LOUD. The Batter felt that once again, he had destroyed something extremely important. He pondered it for a second, and mentally shrugged the feeling away. No sense in regretting his decisions. Just accept the consequences and move on.

And the consequences he might suffer indeed. The entity didn't take the destruction of its star shard very well and was still in the process of screaming bloody murder. How annoying. Maybe if he wished hard enough, his bat would become planetary in size and he'd be able to purify the damn thing. Idly, the Batter noticed he'd obtained a sense of humor, even if it was very dry. How quaint. Zacharie must have rubbed off on him, even if he was a world corrupting bastard deity. Figures.

The Batter realized he was rapidly approaching a planet that looked uncannily similar to his Earth before the Collapse happened. When he was roughly a few hundred kilometers away, another one of Zacharie's "doors" opened up. Seeing as he was still rapidly accelerating with no way to stop (was he in space?!) the Batter stoically flew toward his uncertain future. Well, at least this was more interesting than the limbo hell he'd been in before. The Batter made contact with the "door" and disappeared once more.

* * *

It was a quiet late afternoon at Winslow High School. In one of the many hallways, a seemingly comatose girl stood upright wedged in a tiny locker full of various biohazards. The girl was unconscious and was adorned with many cuts and scrapes, likely obtained from her attempts to escape her rancid prison. If she wasn't treated with proper medical care soon, it was likely she would die. Earlier, she had screamed and pleaded for someone, anyone, to let her out.

But no one came to her aid.

Except…

If one listened closely, a faint whirring sound could be heard. With a spark and a flash, a white doorway spun into existence in the middle of the hallway. It silently stood there until-

The Batter emerged from the doorway. He was no longer in the void (space?) but he was still accelerating rather rapidly. Gripping his bat with his two monstrous hands, he angled it towards the ground and plunged.

SCCRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETTTCCCCHHHHHHHH

His bat sunk into the ground more gracefully than one might expect from a blunt object. Maybe it was due to the fact a 12 foot reptilian monstrosity which had considerable strength and weight applied said strength to the dull pointed object in its hands. He eventually came to a stop at the end of the hallway, narrowly avoiding going through a wall. His bat had left a deep gouge in the tiles of the floor in a straight line.

Straitening up and hitting the ceiling in the process, the Batter cursed and started reverting back to his human form. More cracking noises followed as bones and muscle mass moved in ways they shouldn't have. With a final sickening pop, The Bad Batter was gone, and in the monstrosities place was simply the Batter.

This place looked rather odd. Pre-Collapse maybe. Well, if this was Earth.

As the Batter turned to make his way out of the building and find out where the hell he was, a strange feeling of being bound by strings came over his limbs.

Oh. OH. He knew this feeling. He was being assigned to a "player" or more accurately, a "puppeteer".

Figures he'd be chained again so quickly. He blamed Zacharie.

But this was rather odd. He usually sensed the player's strings somewhere above him. But this one's strings…

They were leading to a locker. Rather, they led **into** the locker.

Batter had a bad feeling about this. And what was that smell, it was…!

The Batter's eyes widened, and raising his bat over his head he swung his bat at the locker door at an angle in order to prevent harming the occupant. The poorly made locker's door fell off and a young female human and what could only be described as toxic waste poured out.

 **Yes, the Batter did just 'accidentally' the Queen Administrator shard. Let's hope he's an adequate replacement. For the sake of the universe.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Man, writing exposition sucks. I want to get right into the action, but I need to set some sort of plot. Otherwise it would just be the Batter being a murderhobo. But, I digress.**

 **Here's chapter 3.**

 **I wonder how long it'll be until the M rating kicks OFF.**

 **Mildly disturbing imagery ahead, though not graphic enough to warrant an M rating (Yet…)**

 **And swearing, I think… (Yes, there is swearing. I checked.)**

 **89ingenting- It'll depend on how well Taylor can curb Batter's violent tendencies. Remember, the Batter is not human, and does not look at morality and ethics the same way we do. The PR might choose to classify him as a threat depending on what he does when he arrives to the cape scene. Also, his Bad Batter form is REALLY not PR friendly.**

"Text" is someone "normal" speaking.

-"Text"- is The Batter speaking. (Given up on underlines, trying dashes.)

 **"** **Text" will be someone "monstrous" speaking, or the author. Which is pretty much the same thing.**

Purifying Brockton Bay

Chapter 3 – The Player and the Puppet

The Batter, without a moment of hesitation walked through the filth and picked the young human up. When you've ridden on the back of an oversized rubber duck- sorry, a Pedalo, on a stinking river of putrid meat, nothing really seems to faze you anymore on the gross factor.

Looking at the human, the Batter could tell even without wide angle, if something wasn't done soon, the human would die soon. He briefly contemplated doing nothing. The puppeteer would die, and he would be released from his newly acquired shackles. Then he would be free to wander this strange new world.

Though, to do what exactly? It's not like he had a purpose anymore. He completed his quest, and destroyed his world. There was no more spirits or guardians to be purified, and Zacharie looked to be forever out of his reach now. Bastard.

Perhaps he should save the human. He'd get a purpose, the human would be alive, and it would work out for the two of them. Maybe. In hindsight, maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all, because he WAS a monster masquerading as a human. The Batter knew his disguise didn't work as well as he hoped it would. He got the feeling from the Elsen he'd came across on his mission that his presence unnerved them greatly. It was called what again? The uncomfortable hole effect? No, no, it was the uncanny valley effect. Probably because of his chalk white skin.

But he was getting off topic. The more the Batter thought, the closer the human was at death's doorstep. He would save the human. It wouldn't do to have her die because of childish refusal on his part. The Batter remembered Zacharie's words from earlier.

 **I'm curious however, if you can actually save something.**

 **-You, who killed your own child.-**

The Batter had attacked Zacharie before he could say that last part, but his troubled thoughts finished Zacharie's statement for him.

The Batter's fist clenched and he grit his teeth. He'd prove that scheming bastard wrong. The Batter snapped his fingers and summoned Omega. He activated wide angle to see how much damage was done.

The Batter set the girl down and started his examination at her head. He removed his new puppeteer- he meant Player's cracked glasses and deduced that the human's vision was naturally bad. He ordered Omega to use Inverse Perspective on the human's head. The human's vision should now be fixed, and the Cure Muteness aspect of the ability fixed the human's cut up throat.

Moving down to her torso he carefully removed the girl's shredded clothes, so he could get to the wounds. If the Batter were a man, he would be feeling incredibly uncomfortable right now, undressing a teenage girl. But he wasn't and frankly had no carnal interest in human anatomy. If it meant saving the human, he would do frankly everything in his power to accomplish the feat. Even if it wasn't socially acceptable.

As the Batter gazed upon the cuts and scrapes on the human's torso/arms/legs, he realized there was a slight issue. Omega didn't technically have any healing spells in the conventional use of healing. He used all his remaining tickets and jokers in the fight against Zacharie. He still had various pieces of meat in his possession but he doubted shoving the flesh of various monsters down the human's throat would improve matters. The Batter would simply have to improvise. He snapped his fingers once again and summoned Elipson.

The Batter had Elipson cast Baroque Drama, which would strengthen her constitution, and Unrevokable Drama, which would improve the condition of her nerves. He then had Omega cast Frontal Perspective, primarily to remove any lingering nerve trauma, and Overdone Perspective, which got rid of the poison flowing through her veins thanks to all that filth piled in that locker with her. The Batter made a mental note to find whoever put her in there and make them die a very slow and painful death. He expected the human to wake up from Overdone Perspective's secondary effect, Cure Sleep, but most worryingly, she didn't. The Batter frowned. There was one more perspective he could use, but that was for reviving vanquished Add-Ons. The human was not an Add-On, and wasn't vanquished. Still, it couldn't hurt to try. He ordered Omega to use Decupled Perspective.

He watched in fascination as gray light flowed into the unconscious human.

 **A word of warning. Unlike the Batter who in essentially a (mostly) blank slate in terms of personality and is easy to write, Taylor Herbert is a bit more complex. I will try to faithfully recreate her personality, but forgive me if she seems a bit OOC. If I happen to fail horribly and you feel the need to comment, please give me some advice on writing her personality for future chapters as you will be seeing a lot of her.**

 **This paragraph also serves as a line break.**

 **{Play** **OFF OST: -02- Silencio}**

Taylor Herbert seemingly awoke with a start. Ugh. It felt like she just died or something. What was she just doing-?

She clutched her head in pain as the memories came back to her. The locker, Sophia, Emma, the bullying. It made her want to curl up and cry. However, it seemed her surroundings were demanding her attention a little too much.

She noticed the area first. She was sitting on what appeared to be a black nothingness. Off in the distance where red dots surrounded by streaks of green. Then, she heard the whispers, which caused her to think of the Simurgh. Taylor panicked. After a few minutes of holding her hands over her ears and utterly failing to block out the whispers, which sounded like they were in… French? They suddenly quieted down. Taylor took a few moments to reassure herself that she wasn't crazy. She was barely holding together as it was.

After innumerable minutes later, Taylor worked up the resolve to stop cowering and stand up. It was rather disconcerting to be walking on nothing. Unfortunately, Taylor made the mistake of looking down at her hands. They were cut open horrifically, with gashes in every direction. There was also the addition of what looked to be bloody strings attached at various sections of her fingers. Taylor had a breakdown yet again. However, before she could collapse again, Taylor heard a sound from behind her.

Taylor didn't want to turn around. She really didn't.

But alas, human curiosity got the better of her and she turned around. And immediately regretted it.

An enormous monster followed by 3 angels covered in countless eyes where running/flying towards her at what looked to be a fast speed and was covering distance rather quickly. The details of the monster were strangely fuzzy for her, like she couldn't focus on it. Her vision kept sliding off it.

The monster reached out an enormous hand at her.

Taylor instinctively put her hands up in a futile effort to stop the monster, and the bloody strings, seemingly acting of their own will, shot out at the abomination.

They wrapped around the monster's limbs, and then everything went white.

 **** ** _[Disruption]_**

 **** ** _[Error]_**

 ** _[Warning: The application has been deleted.]_**

 ** _[Searching for replacement files. Please stand by.]_**

 ** _[4 Replacement files have been found. Opening up installation menu.]_**

 ** _[Application has been added to the menu.]_**

 ** _[Application has been added to the menu.]_**

 ** _[Application has been added to the menu.]_**

 ** _[Application has been added to the menu.]_**

 ** _[All necessary Applications have been added to the menu.]_**

 ** _[Installing…]_**

Taylor Herbert would remember nothing of what had just transpired.

 **{This is meant to serve as a line break. Please disregard this message.}**

Taylor Herbert awoke on the tile floor feeling very cold and uncomfortable. She realized her glasses were not on her face and reached around aimlessly for them. She then realized her vision was perfect.

Tenderly, she put her hands on her face where her glasses used to be.

"I can… see? Without my glasses…"

-"Oh good, you're awake".-

Taylor looked to the left side of her. A very pale man dressed like a baseball player holding a metal bat was crouched next to her. His eyes were obscured by the black baseball cap he wore. The only thing that really stood out on his face was his chalk white skin and the perfectly symmetrical eye black. The man had a stern, stoic expression, and had greeted her without any emotion in his voice.

"Who are you?"

-"My name is The Batter. It is a pleasure to meet you, Player."-

Player? What did he mean by tha…? Eek.

It was at this point Taylor realized she wasn't wearing any clothing. And was currently in the presence of a grown man in nothing but her birthday suit.

Taylor shrieked.

The Batter grimaced.

 **Not exactly an ideal first impression. Poor Batter.**

 **For those wondering about the 3 angels covered in eyes, that's one of the fan interpretations of the Add-Ons. There's a picture of them somewhere on the internet…**

 **I'd give you a link to the picture, but this website might not like that very much.**

 **The picture is in a certain deviant part…**

 **Find it yourself. I have faith in you.**

 **The M rating marches ever closer dear viewers….**

 **(No, Taylor's bloody hands don't count. I didn't go into much graphic detail and besides, this is Worm people, messed up things in this web serial's universe are an everyday occurrence.)**


	4. Chapter 4

**I find that once again this website has messed up my formatting. Apparently it does not like the dot Executive file name added to the end of words. As a result, you lot didn't actually see what the application names were and instead just saw the word application.**

 **I apologize for my noobery to fanfiction dot net.**

 **The whole application thing was supposed to be read as such.**

 **I also swear I spelt angel as angle somewhere. Dammit, I thought I got everything.**

 ** _[Disruption]_**

 ** _[Error]_**

 ** _[Warning: The application QueenAdministratorShard dot executive has been deleted.]_**

 ** _[Searching for replacement files. Please stand by.]_**

 ** _[4 Replacement files have been found. Opening up installation menu.]_**

 ** _[Application ThePuppeteer dot executive has been added to the menu.]_**

 ** _[Application TheBadBatter dot executive has been added to the menu.]_**

 ** _[Application BatterDisguise dot executive has been added to the menu.]_**

 ** _[Application BatterAddOns dot executive has been added to the menu.]_**

 ** _[All necessary Applications have been added to the menu.]_**

 ** _[Installing…]_**

 **I swear if they still read as just application even with the dot executive, I will be extremely unhappy.**

 **You could say I'd be very ticked OFF.**

 **Hehehe.**

 **Next chapter.**

"Text" is regular talking.

-"Text"- is the Batter talking.

 **"** **Text" is something inhuman speaking. Or foreboding text.**

Purifying Brockton Bay

Chapter 4 – Introductions

In hindsight, letting his Player wake up undressed in his presence wasn't exactly a smart move. But he wasn't going to put her sullied clothes back on, they were filthy. After being forced to profusely apologize many times over, he spent the next few minutes turned away while a blushing and thoroughly embarrassed Taylor Herbert attempted to salvage her clothes. She gave up in her attempt, partially due to the fact that they were soaked to the brim with the disgusting contents of the locker.

It was at this point she meekly asked the Batter for some help in locating new clothes. The Batter responded to this request by beginning to smash the doors off various other lockers, searching for clothes. Taylor didn't stop him, partially due to the fact she was still quite ticked off at the school for ignoring her attempts at reporting the bullying. They could handle a bit of vandalizing.

And it was cold, too.

After about 47 destroyed lockers later, the Batter had obtained a sweatshirt, running shorts, a pair of socks, and some running shoes. He presented these to the Player, hoping they would be satisfactory. She took them and muttered a quiet thanks. The Batter again turned around as the Player put the clothes on.

"Um…"

The Batter turned around. The human was standing there fidgeting and looking very awkward. It reminded him of the Elsen.

"Batter was it? Thank you for umm…. saving me from there."

She lamely pointed at the stinking, battered form of a prison that was her locker.

The social awkwardness was strong with this one. That was unfortunate. She seemed like an introverted person, too. Wonderful. He was also an introvert.

He should probably say something, she was looking at him strangely.

-"It was no problem Player. It's what I am here for after all."-

The girl squinted her eyebrows.

"Again with that title, Player. You're saying it like it means something."

The Batter frowned. She didn't know what it meant. That was new. All the Players he'd had in the past were fully aware of what they were doing, controlling him.

He sighed. It was unfortunate, but it looked like he'd have to do a long winded explanation.

-"A Player is someone who has the ability to control the actions of a puppet. The puppet is usually designated to a certain point in space time. All puppets are different, and have varying motives in their missions. The Player's purpose is to assist the puppet in their mission for reasons I do not know. Maybe it is amusement, knowing that their actions will dictate the lives of those that are bound by strings. But the main point is this. You are a Player, and I am your assigned puppet, bound by **your** stings. You decide my actions, and in the long run, my fate."-

Quite an accurate summary, if the Batter said so himself. He repeated his quest several times before a Player willing to end what was left of the world was chosen for him. A large majority of the Players from before had decided to side with The Judge in some misguided attempt of justice. It irked the Batter. Who were they to decide they had all the facts? His world was better off gone. Before, it had been dying a slow, painful death. He had resolved to take mercy upon the world and accelerate the progress of the End.

On a side note, the human looked quite horrified at this revelation.

"I control your actions and decide your fate? That sounds kind of unfair."

-"I am used to it."- Batter offered the sentence as a way to reassure her. It failed.

The girl pouted.

"That doesn't make me feel any better at all."

The Batter, feeling rather snarky, grinned and replied.

-"Embrace it. It's not like I'm going away anytime soon."-

He frowned internally. Where had that come from? Wasn't like him at all.

"So let me get this straight, I was pushed into the locker and blacked out. I wake up naked and you're standing there calling me your Player- Omigod. I triggered didn't I?

Triggered? What on earth was that?

-"I do not know what triggering is, but essentially that looks to be the case."-

"You don't know what triggering is? How- oh right, you're a projection formed by my power. Of course you wouldn't know."

-"Projection?-"

She fidgeted again.

"Well I mean, you did just appear out of nowhere to save me right?"

The Batter felt conflicted. Part of him wanted to tell her he came out of what appeared to be a multidimensional portal after fighting a maybe deity, but that would only cause the human confusion. He chose not to mention it.

-"I guess you're right."-

No, she wasn't. Not even close.

"Ok! Well, since you appear to be sentient, I guess I better fill you in."

The human clasped her hands together when she said this, probably trying to look serious. She instead looked awkwardly adorable. These emotion things made him very confused. He blamed Zacharie.

"A parahumans is someone who has superpowers essentially. They uh- or I guess we now, gain them by triggering, which is essentially us experiencing the worst day in our lives."

Sounds wonderful.

"In any case, I forgot to give you my name. It's Taylor Herbert.

Finally, a name for his Player. He was getting tired of calling her human, girl, and player.

Yet again, Taylor fidgeted. Does this girl have any self-esteem?

"A- a- ah, we should go home, to my house. My dad is probably worried."

They did just that and left the school. Batter kicked open the locked school doors with his foot.

It was a long and awkward silence walking to Taylor's house. He got the impression Taylor wanted to say something, but didn't know how to put it into words. She shouldn't worry so much. No matter what she did, he wouldn't judge.

It wasn't his place to question his Player.

When they reached the house, Taylor rang the doorbell. After a few seconds, the door opened, and a haggard looking man embraced Taylor.

"Oh thank God, Taylor! You didn't come home and I thought something happened!"

The Batter noticed the man had a strange clear liquid coming out his eyes. How interesting, it wasn't plastic. Ah, the man noticed him.

 **{Water is an alien concept for OFF. If I remember correctly.}**

"Taylor, who is that?"

Taylor looked rather uncomfortable.

"Can we talk about this inside? It's kind of personal."

We filed in the house. Taylor convinced her dad that I helped her and was important for the discussion ahead. Her father reluctantly let me in.

We sat at the dinner table in the house's kitchen. Taylor's father didn't waste time and immediately bombarded her with questions.

"Now Taylor, who is that man?"

"Um… well he's…. {Sigh} Dad. I triggered. I'm a parahuman."

Her dad stared at her slack jawed. He quickly regained his composure. He asked what happened.

Taylor told him everything. The bullying, emails, teachers ignoring her, the locker, and Batter saving her. It made the father and the Batter grit their teeth in frustration. She even pulled out a huge stack of papers detailing each event. Batter never felt like he wanted to kill someone so badly since Zacharie.

The father and daughter argued about taking legal action. Taylor said they couldn't afford it, not with one of her tormenters father who was a lawyer and would back up the school.

They moved on to Taylor joining something called the Wards and Taylor asked her father to give her time to think about it.

What followed after that argument was a quiet dinner. Batter didn't need to eat, but accepted the food out of courtesy. Afterwards Taylor went to her room. The Batter stayed downstairs, recognizing she needed some time to herself, and conversed with her father. Her father thanked him about rescuing his daughter and they sat in silence.

Surprisingly, it wasn't awkward.

The Batter later went upstairs with her father to check on Taylor. She was still thinking. Her father bid her goodnight. Taylor and the Batter spoke for a while. She introduced him to the internet. A few hours later, The Batter left his Player's room so she could sleep in peace. They would speak more in the morning.

As the Batter laid on the couch, he thought of the family's predicament.

They would do nothing. Taylor had no real solid proof about who shoved her into that locker (apparently someone named Sophia Hess, the Batter made a note to find that girl later.), and what evidence she had she couldn't say without outing herself. The stack of papers could be ignored too. In short, the school wouldn't be fined, and the bullies would get away scot- free. This wouldn't do, thought the Batter.

Sifting through the many, many papers of evidence Taylor had against the bullies, he found an interesting thing. Emma's address. The Batter smiled. Maybe justice could be served after all.

If Taylor's bullying was unable to be solved by legal means, he'd just have to take matters into his own hands. What better way than to remove one of the ringleaders by them suffering an untimely accident.

He waited for Taylor and her father to fall asleep, and snuck outside the house. On his way out, he saw that it was now 11:07 p.m. That gave him 8 hours at least, before Taylor should wake up.

The Batter walked the streets, dressed in a trench coat and dress hat he found in Taylor's dad's closet. Why her father had such a thing (the coat) he had no idea. What he was about to do wasn't exactly legal, and he stood out like a sore thumb normally. The coat and hat would at least disguise him.

The Batter knew how an address worked, mostly from wandering the world outside the zones. A lot of Pre-Collapse human houses had remained, after all.

He reached the address without much hassle. He half expected to come across one of these "parahumans" on his way to his destination, but he didn't.

The Barnes family lived in a fairly ordinary house. Now, how to get in so he could brutalize their daughter.

He could smash the door down, but that might wake up the occupants inside. He needed to get to Emma's room.

The Batter tried the top floors first, by summoning his Add-Ons and using them as stairs. After his third attempt, he finally found his target. The room, looking in from the outside, looked like a typical high school teenager's room.

Batter morphed his left hand into Bad Batter form and slid a very sharp finger nail under the windowsill. The foolish girl didn't lock it. The window opened without a sound, and the Batter quietly slid in.

Holding up a picture of Emma he'd found stuffed away in Taylor's closet he held it above the sleeping bundle in the sheets as he carefully pulled back the covers. Thankfully it was Emma, and not someone else. He carefully finished pulling back the covers.

Luckily, Emma didn't decide to sleep nude or anything and was wearing a regular set of pajamas. They even had little red fruits adorning them. How cute.

The girl had what most could call an attractive figure. The Batter agreed, in a non-carnal way. Her body had all the right curves, including her **legs**.

 **-A pity she wouldn't be ever be able to ever walk again when he was done with her.-**

The Batter mentally resummoned Alpha, and had it cast Requisite Embrace and Open Embrace. One to blind her, and the other to silence her. The chains quietly wrapped around her neck and eyes. Emma muttered something in her sleep, but that was it. The Batter positioned himself next to her knees. Emma was sleeping face up.

The Batter raised his bat.

This was it. With this action, he would change this girl's life forever. An eye for an eye, really. She nearly killed his Player, so he'll break her legs. She was getting the better deal, really, than the alternative that he kill her.

He swung his bat down at her kneecaps.

 **{This serves as a line break. Don't worry, you'll see what happened with Emma next chapter.}**

The Batter left the Barnes residence. Nothing like a job well done, even with minor complications.

As he had left the district with Emma's house in it, He heard a voice call out to him.

"Halt, villain!"

Villain? There was no way anyone had seen what he'd just done, he would have noticed. Maybe it was because he was walking down the streets at night holding a bat, dressed in suspicious clothing.

The Batter turned. Up there, somehow flying despite having no wings, was a figure clad in white. She was blonde and had a tiara adorning her head. A "Hero" if he remembered correctly, seeing her online somewhere.

Before he could assure her that, no he wasn't a villain, the blonde hero charged him and sunk a fist into his gut.

The Batter, instead of flying through the air, only slid back a couple feet.

Ow. That hurt. Not the worst he'd ever experienced, but enough to make him feel it, even with his reduced sense of pain.

The hero taunted him. The Batter felt something in him snap.

That's it. He was going to purify this bitch. Taylor's face appeared briefly in his mind. Okay, maybe not purify her, but he'd break a few bones.

The bitch was saying something at him, probably in shock he didn't go flying, when the Batter charged. The girl was caught off guard by his speed and his bat angled itself to connect with her ribcage.

He swung his bat.

Instead of impact, the Batter hit an invisible wall. Said wall glowed gold briefly. A force field. Lovely. She punched him again. He slid back further.

Alpha appeared and shot a flood of chains at her, forcing the hero to take flight.

The Batter held his bat by his side looking up at Glory Girl. How curious. His bat hadn't broken through. He wondered how much of a beating that golden force field could take.

The Batter grinned. His first real fight in this new world, against one of these "parahumans" no less. This could be fun. He assumed his stance, holding his bat like he was about to hit a ball. Omega and Elipson appeared by Alpha behind him. He uttered his sacred phrase.

 **-"Purification in progress."-**

 **{Play OST: Pepper Steak}**

The Batter leapt into the air, intent on bringing his bat down upon Glory Girl's head.

 **{A probably noncanon Omake #2}**

 _In an alternate universe where Batter accidently killed Glory Girl…_

Taylor hit the Batter on the head with a rolled up newspaper.

"When you said purify, I didn't think you meant killing her!"

-"But..."-

"No! Bad Batter!"

The Batter stared at her. Snapping and cracking noises followed. The Bad Batter, now a twelve foot monstrosity, loomed over Taylor.

Taylor put her face in her hands and let out a pained groan.

 **That won't happen, don't worry. Killing Glory Girl, I mean. She'll just need a lot of healing from Panacea when he's finished.**

 **Anyway…**

 **It begins. The purification of Brockton Bay has started, beginning with Glory Girl's ego!**

 **If you think the Batter was a bit hasty in fighting her and not trying to convince her he wasn't a villain it was because… He doesn't care about silly little labels, and he's naturally violent.**

 **He's also still hung up about the whole Zacharie thing.**

 **Be honest, we've all fantasized breaking Emma's legs at some point. I'm nice enough to grant you viewers the pleasure of reading about it in the next chapter, in all its wonderfully graphic detail.**

 **And yes, I'm aware that Batter is slowly going platonic yandere for Taylor.**

 **If that's a thing.**

 **Well, if it isn't, it is now.**

 **You felt a presence behind you.**

 **It was the M rating.**

 **M rating is a go next chapter.**


	5. Chapter 5

**I feel like I forced Taylor's personality a bit last chapter. Writing a main character with little experience is hard. I'm a beginner author, only thing I really have going for me is my fleshed out vocabulary. Probably the reason your eyes don't bleed while reading my fanfic.**

 **It helps that the Batter is the main protagonist of this fic. Taylor is secondary, but most of the chapters will be from the Batter's perspective. It helps that I'm essentially giving him a proper personality. Now, instead of being a Genocidal version of Armsmaster without Tinker powers (such a tool) he is slowly becoming his own character.**

 **Anyway…**

 **The M rating is here!**

 ***Blows air horn***

 **BBBBWWWWAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH**

 **Now I can finally go into graphic detail about violent things without breaking the T Rating!**

 **Because there isn't one now!**

 **Joy!**

 **The T rating is now on OFF.**

 **(No this isn't a pun, it's a reference. Who would OFF thought.)**

 **;)**

"Text" is normal speaking. Mainstream and boring.

-"Text"- is the Batter speaking. He's kinda the main character of this fic, so be sure to listen.

 **"** **Text" is inhuman speaking. All people who are dead inside talk like this.**

 **{Shit, I just insulted myself.}**

Purifying Brockton Bay

Chapter 5 – Oops

 **{Play OFF OST: Pepper Steak}**

Glory Girl was not having a good night. Who she thought looked suspiciously like Alabaster wearing a trench coat and fancy hat was in fact, not Alabaster. Instead, it was someone else who was proving to be way more dangerous then Alabaster ever was. Shit, she thought as she dodged a bat coated in black energy. She watched as it smashed a hole in the wall where she was previously.

She had started off the fight strong, getting the jump on who she thought was Alabaster. That illusion was shattered when Not-Alabaster pulled out a regular looking baseball bat and slammed it against her force field hard enough to make it shimmer into existence.

She felt the wind **move** from that strike.

She punched him a few times, taunted him. But then, a bloodthirsty hula hoop appeared and proceeded to shoot a ridiculous amount of oversized linked chains at her.

He was a Blaster too. Glory Girl was beginning to regret picking this fight.

She tried stopping the fight by asking who he was, but Alabaster's twin wasn't listening to her. He instead took a baseball stance and two other hula hoops appeared and joined their hula hoop brother. Not-Alabaster said something about purifying and proceeded to jump 15 feet into the air aiming his now shadowy bat at her head. She made the mistake of taking the hit, causing her force field to gain a nice long crack running down the center.

Glory Girl decided she didn't want to find out what would happen if he hit it like that again.

Thing was, when she tried to fly away, the demonic hula hoops from hell fired a salvo of different objects at her. The one from earlier fired more chains, another what appeared to be displaced air, and the last one flashing light orbs which exploded when they hit things.

They were causing a massive amount of property damage, and Glory Girl knew that if she didn't win this fight, it would be her head for it. She dodged and weaved, trying to get closer so she could get at least one of the damn things.

When she finally got close enough, she got hit from behind by Alabaster's twin. Guy had a Mover rating too, if he was keeping up so easily with her. She felt the force behind the blow move her force field including her forward.

The fucking hula hoops levitated out of the way at the very last second when she was just within reach.

Glory Girl was really regretting picking this fight. Because at this rate, it looked like she might lose.

Her flight then gave out, and she hit the ground. Hard. Her force field prevented her from harm, but the same could not be said for her clothes. They were torn and ripped.

As Glory Girl struggled to get up, she heard footsteps from behind her.

A bat began to be raised.

She rolled to the side, laying with her back on the ground, facing her adversary.

Glory Girl was treated to the sight of Alabaster's twin raising a bat ominously above her. But that was not what caught her attention.

There, under the shadow of the man's fancy hat, two white glowing eyes could be seen. They were like an **abyss** , gazing into her soul.

Even as Not-Alabaster began bringing his bat down upon her head, Glory Girl's eyes remained focused on the white, soulless voids full of **madness**.

The bat hit her head with a crack, and she saw no more.

 **{This sentence serves as a line break, because the author is fancy like that.}**

That was… a rush. The Batter grinned. That had been **fun**. Much more interesting than the dull, slow moving spirits of his world.

He was going to love it here.

The Batter dismissed his Add-Ons, mood lifted now that he'd found someone to work out his frustrations on. He didn't kill the girl, just left her ego bruised and a nasty bump on her head.

A strange Ka-lick noise was heard from the right of him **.** He turned.

Standing there was a human holding a rectangular device. He recognized it as a phone. The human was taking a picture of him.

He looked down at the defeated hero. Shit, he really looked like the bad guy here. Taylor was going to be pissed when she found out.

The Batter hauled ass back to Taylor's house before he made enemies out of all the heroes in Brockton Bay.

It was the morning. Taylor was looking at him suspiciously.

He stoically acted like he did nothing wrong.

Taylor beckoned him to her room, where on her computer, displayed in all of its unholy glory was him wearing a trench coat and fancy hat bringing his bat down upon the hero, whose name he gained from the title- Alabaster's twin makes Glory Girl eat dirt. His white glowing eyes were visible too.

He said the first thing that came to mind. And face palmed internally at the stupidity of it.

-"She hit me first."-

Taylor gave him an impressive glare coming from such an socially akward girl.

-"They only got the color of my skin, and my eyes."-

She pointed at the bat shrouded in darkness.

-"I can get a new one?"-

Her face turned an worrying shade of red.

"Why on earth did you go outside?! Now, everyone thinks you're a villain!"

He defended his actions.

-"I wanted to get a feel for the city."-

He did not mention breaking Emma's legs, or the fact that she triggered from it.

 _Flashback_

 _The Batter raised his bat._

 _This was it. With this action, he would change this girl's life forever. An eye for an eye, really. She nearly killed his Player, so he'll break her legs. She was getting the better deal, really, than the alternative that he kill her._

 _He swung his bat down at her kneecaps._

 _Emma awoke feeling the worst pain she had ever experienced in her life. She screamed, but no sound came from her mouth. She opened her eyes, but she could not see. If she bothered to listen she would hear the Batter's breathing coming from the space next to her. It was unlikely that she noticed, due to the fact that her legs were broken._

 _An understatement really, the kneecaps' bones if one were to look past the exterior of skin and muscle was completely shattered. Her legs were internally bleeding, discolorations appearing from the leg to the foot. The bones were in a million pieces, almost like a fine dust. Mere pain did not even begin to describe the sensation._

 _Emma continued screaming silently. The Batter watched stoically._

 _Then something strange happened. The Batter felt a presence high in the sky, making a beeline towards his and Emma's location._

 _He looked up._

 _A star shard came through the ceiling and flew into Emma's brain._

 _This must be a trigger event, thought the Batter. He readied his bat to subdue the girl._

 _What happened wasn't what he expected._

 _Emma's mouth opened wide, and a pillar of burning smoke poured out. She looked like an Elsen who burned incorrectly. The smoke proceeded to melt the ceiling, exposing the starry sky in the bedroom for all to see. Her legs then combusted, for a lack of a better word. Gore flew everywhere, and the corrosive smoke poured out of the blood spurting holes in her leg. This isn't what he intended at all. The chains around her neck and eyes broke, and she screamed bloody murder._

 _The Batter quickly fled the premise. There was no way he could solve this without blowing his cover. Let it be someone else's problem. She should at least not come back to Taylor's school for a while considering she was that… now._

 _And if she did come after Taylor, he'd_ _ **purify**_ _her. Simple as that._

 _So yeah, minor complications._

-"And I came across Glory Girl. She attacked me without provocation, and I responded in turn."

Taylor glared at him and, after a little while sighed.

"I guess I can't fault you for defending yourself."

The Batter tried to placate her more.

-"Besides summoning me isn't your only ability anyway, and we have yet to have been **l** i **n** k **e** d, anyway."-

She frowned.

"Linking?"

-"I'll explain in detail when we actually do it. Point is you probably have more abilities than just summoning me. We'll find out when we go through with the process."-

Mission success. Taylor looked interested now, and hopefully she would forget about his night out.

Yeah, not bloody likely.

Oh look, some organization called the Protectorate got a new ward.

 **I said it once, and I'll say it again. The Batter sucks at first impressions.**

 **I didn't want to chance the T rating with the uniqueness of Emma's triggering. Don't worry, I'll probably think of more horrible things in the future if that didn't sate your bloodthirst.**

 **See you next chapter.**


	6. Chapter 6

**I've hit over 1000 views. Wowzers. Didn't expect this many people to look at it already. I mean sure there's probably a few people going back and rereading, adding more views, but still 1000+ views.**

 **And look, my first constructive criticism.**

 **Edale: Admittedly, I was already thinking of this before I wrote last chapter, but I forgot to write a note in the author's commentary. I meant to change Glory Girl's power just a tad specifically for that fight and the rest of the fanfic. I mean, it's not like she's going to be able to kill an Endbringer even with her canon power, so no harm no foul, eh?**

 **So yeah, since I forgot to mention it last chapter (whoops), Glory Girl's shield works a bit different now. I genuinely forgot to write a note in chapter 5.**

 **It now works as taking a set amount of damage, which is quite large, and cracks when close to breaking. Part of the reason I changed it was to drive home the point that the Batter can hit REALLY FUCKING HARD. Even with her shield changed, it could still badly shrug off a hit from an Endbringer, but as I said before, she never kills one in canon, so it's not a big deal.**

 **Edale, your nitpicking is still appreciated.**

 **As for Emma, It was really late at night when I was writing that part, and I think I was going for the burning thing Elsen do when they get stressed. Except that Emma, last I checked isn't made out of sugar.**

 **Time to come up with an explanation that can work. I was planning on writing this anyway.**

 **Basically, her power works by having a "core"** (bear with me here, I'm trying to make an explanation of why her legs exploded and how her power works on the spot.) **that generates smoke in a new organ located above her stomach and is connected to various organic 'tubes' now present in her body. It also has the added effect of being corrosive, because normal smoke is boring. It is limited by the Manton effect, and cannot harm humans, but effects just about everything else. When she gains wounds that open up her skin, smoke flows out of them as a self-defense mechanism. It is corrosive enough to dissolve a bullet and disintegrate lasers midflight, which makes it actually useful. It would also presumably work against the Batter, since he isn't human. I know what your all thinking, why did Emma's legs blow the fuck up? The reason her legs exploded was that the severity of the injuries done to her legs was enough that the tubes didn't form properly, in which they burst in various parts of her legs.**

 **There are quite a few 'openings' located in Emma's body. Several we know the location of already are her throat and legs. When she learns to control her power more, she'll be able to open tubes in her arms and hands to shoot pressurized amounts of corrosive steam at enemies. And her legs also, though she will never be able to walk on them again. There isn't enough of a patella (kneecap bone) left to support them, and Panacea will be unable to heal them as doing so will interfere with the tubes and could severely injure Emma further. So it looks like the Batter's promise will hold true.**

 **Blegh. What a mouthful. Now this chapter's going to be longer than my usual word count, like chapter 4.**

 **I'm actually out OFF puns right now, gimmie a while.**

"Text" is regular speaking.

-"Text"- is the Batter speaking.

 **"** **Text" is inhuman speaking, or vague, foreboding text. Savor it.**

Purifying Brockton Bay

Chapter 6 – In Which The Puppeteer Gains Her Strings

Taylor Herbert woke up, feeling refreshed. The knowledge that she now had superpowers was a real mood lifter. Even if her projection, Batter, was kind of odd. She wondered if other Masters who had similar based powers felt the same way she did right now.

She had logged into PHO to look at the local cape news when she came across a peculiar post.

"Alabaster's twin makes Glory Girl eat dirt."

Taylor was filled with a certain sense of dread. She had seen a picture of Alabaster before. If it wasn't him, there was only one other person she knew with that skin tone.

She, with growing trepidation, clicked on the post.

…

Whelp, that was definitely Batter. Wearing a trench coat and admittedly snazzy hat. She didn't even know her father owned that coat. Or the hat.

She watched a very shaky video, presumably taken from someone leaning out a window. From what she saw, Glory Girl got curb stomped. Hard. Part of her felt pride that her projection was strong enough that he was able to take on Glory Girl with what seemed like ease. The other part was screaming in horror.

What had he **done**?

The PHO comment section was full of idiots speculating if Batter was actually Alabaster's twin. The Empire 88 posters serving as the peanut gallery, throwing thinly veiled insults at New Wave while Brandish waged war in trying to save face, and was losing. Her daughter clearly attacked without provocation and paid the price for it.

Taylor stomped downstairs and glared at Batter who was sitting on the couch watching television.

He acted like he did nothing wrong. She beckoned him upstairs, and he followed.

She showed him the video. The Batter's expression didn't change, but she got the impression he was feeling like a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

He then had the gall to respond with the childish statement that Glory Girl hit him first.

For someone who looked like a grown man, he sure was acting childish right now.

She began yelling at him. He tried to placate her by reassuring that she had more powers than just him as an, admittedly badass, bodyguard. It worked. Despite her best efforts at staying mad at the Batter, her anger ebbed away at the excitement at the prospect of discovering the depths of her power.

They were now in her room, about to do this "linking" Batter spoke of.

-"To do this we'll first to need to be in bodily contact. A handshake will work"-

The Batter held out his hand. Taylor took it in hers. His hand was smooth, like porcelain. It also felt strangely cold. Taylor flushed at the contact. When was the last time she touched another person like this who wasn't her father?

-"A word of warning. When the process starts, you will see strange things. If anything speaks to you, try not to converse with them too long. Trust me on this. Find me as soon as possible."-

Taylor was confused. Was the Batter implying this would be dangerous?

-"The next step will require eye contact."-

The hat the Batter had worn since she first met him had always hid his eyes from view. Was he going to take it off?

The Batter leaned in uncomfortably close to her face. The shadow slid of his eyes. They were a grayish white with pupils. Internally, Taylor breathed a sigh of relief. He did look human under that hat.

Then, his eye black faded, and was replaced by two yellow glowing eyes, giving him 4 eyes in total. They all switched eye colors and glowed red.

Wait, what. What the fuck-

Before she could scream in surprise, The Batter muttered-

 **-"Sleep."-**

A chain wrapped around her arm, and Taylor felt unconsciousness take her.

 **{Play OFF OST: Empty Warehouse}**

Taylor Herbert woke up in a strange place. She was on what appeared to be on a white colored slab surrounded by cloudy white water. There were smaller L shaped slabs nearby with strange contraptions on top of them. They looked like buttons.

Taylor looked up. There was no proper sky, only an eerie white haze upwards where the sky should have been. Where had the Batter sent her?

The reality of the situation hit her. Her projection had just grown two eyes out of nowhere, muttered some words, and sent her to this strange place. She looked around again.

Was he really just a mere projection of her power? This seemed like a bit much, even for parahuman power standards.

Deciding that pondering what just happened wouldn't do her any good, she got up. Taylor realized her clothes were different. She was wearing a black hoodie, its insides white, and if she bothered to look at the back, she would find a giant orange X on the back.

She looked down the slab. It seemed to stretch on into an eternity. Taylor sighed and walked forward, as that was the only way she could go.

Eventually, after much walking, she reached a giant building. It had two smaller buildings in front, with ladders going up the sides. There were windows placed randomly all over the building.

As she approached the building, a cat appeared out of nowhere. It was colored an inky black, with its eyes a creepy looking white. It had two buckteeth and they appeared to be holding its mouth open.

 **"** **GrEeTiNgS, hUmAn."** Its voice sounded hoarse and scratchy, a little like nails on a chalkboard.

Taylor hesitated in answering.

"Uh, hello?"

 **"** **It HaS bEeN a LoNg TiMe SiNcE oNe Of YoUr KiNd HaS bEeN hErE. ThIs PlAcE iSn'T SoMeWhErE yOu CaN StUmBlE iN bLiNdLy. WhY aRe YoU hErE?**

Taylor, internally clamming up, responded with what she hoped would be an appropriate response.

"The Batter sent me here."

The thing tilted its head.

 **"** **Ah YeS, tHe BaTtEr. tHe OnE wHo KiLlEd ThAt DaMnAbLe BiRd."**

Taylor scrunched her eyebrows in confusion.

 **"** **Oh, BuT wHeRe ArE mY MaNnErS? My NaMe iS VaLeRiE. wHaT iS yOuR nAmE hUmAn?**

"I'm Taylor."

 **"** **TaYloR. a PlEaSuRe. WeLcoMe tO zOnE -1. wHeRe ThE sPiRiTs Of ThE dAmNeD rEsIdE iN aN eTeRnAl HeLl."**

 _Well, that sounded pleasant. Where the fuck did you send me Batter?!_

Normally, Taylor would have been kind enough to talk to strangers who she bumped into, usually with a quiet apology. This thing that looked like a cat, named Valerie, however was unnerving her greatly. So she decided to take a page from Batter's book and get straight to the point. It was mean, but there was something extremely off putting about Valerie. The Batter had told her to be careful and not talk to anything she saw during the linking process. Taylor think she saw why now.

"The Batter. Do you uh, know where he is? He told me to look for him before I entered this place."

The faster she could find Batter, the quicker she could get out of here.

 **"** **I dO nOt KnOw WhErE hE iS, bUt TrY cHeCkInG tHe MeEtInG rOoM. It'S tHaT dOoR tHeRe."**

The cat pointed with its tail at a glowing white doorway.

"Thank you… Valerie. I must be off."

Taylor hurried past the disturbing cat.

 **"** **WaIt."**

Taylor stopped, and reluctantly turned her head back.

 **"** **I'vE hEaRd mY bRoThEr, PaBlO, iS lOoKiNg FoR mE. IF yOu Do sEe HiM, tElL hIm tO mEeT mE aT tHe ToP oF zOnE -1."**

"Yeah… I'll do that."

 **"** **ThAnK yOu."**

Taylor walked a brisk pace to the white doorway. Valerie seemed nice, but there was something seriously **wrong** with him. She reached the doorway. What did she do now? She reached out to touch it. It pulled her in.

She found herself in a meeting room, just like Valerie said. As she took a step forward, she heard a disembodied voice.

 **-"Good, you're finally here."-**

Taylor did not jump. Anyone who said she did was a liar, and should be ignored. She looked around the room, but could not see anyone.

"Batter, where are you?"

 **-"My presence here is not necessary for this stage. Now if you're ready to begin, look to the-"-**

Taylor held up one finger.

"Wait just a minute. Before you sent me here, what was the deal with the ominous 4 glowing eyes thing?! You scared the crap out of me!"

 **-"I apologize. The linking requires I make contact with your eyes with all my eyes. I realize now that I did not warn you beforehand. I am sorry."**

Taylor crossed her arms.

"Apology accepted. Now, what is the next step so I can get out of here? This place is really creepy."

 **-"If you'll look to the right you should see a podium with a pair of gloves."-**

Taylor looked to the left. The podium, which she swore wasn't there a second ago, was standing there innocently. She walked up to it.

"Okay, now what?"

 **-"Put them on."-**

Taylor eyed the gloves. They were like the coat she was wearing. Black on the outside, with a white interior. Orange X's were on top of the hand part. She put them on. They seemed perfectly tailored for her size. Looking more closely, she saw there were tiny holes at the fingertips.

"Alright, I've done that. Now?"

 **-"Hold tight."-**

She felt a presence behind her. A **large** hand that did not feel human put a finger on her shoulder. She turned to look but-

 **-"I'M HERE."-**

Everything went white before she could get a proper look at the owner.

 **{At long last, a line break has appeared!}**

Taylor Herbert opened her eyes. She was lying on her bed. Her hand still clasped with the smooth, cold hand of the Batter.

She let go of his hand and got up.

"I never want to go back there again."

The Batter chuckled. Taylor pouted.

"I mean it! That place was weird! And don't ever scare me like that again, with the eyes thing! What are you, a **monster** under that hat?

The Batter noticeably jerked. His smile strained at the word monster, Taylor noticed.

-"Something like that."-

"You're just full of surprises, aren't you?"

-"Heh. I guess you could say that."-

He got up.

-"Now, try using your strings."-

Taylor looked down at her hands. The gloves had transferred somehow to her hands. She wasn't wearing the hoodie though.

"How-"

-"Don't question it. It's better for your sanity that way."-

She glared at him, and muttered a whatever.

She pointed her hands at him. Nothing happened.

"How do I exactly make these things work?"

-"Imagine conducting a puppet. That might help."-

Taylor did as he said. Suddenly strings shot out, connecting with the Batter. Taylor, who was half expecting nothing to happen, was unprepared for the sensory information that suddenly entered her brain. As a result, The Batter fell like a sack of potatoes, landing face first on her floor.

Taylor blushed in embarrassment.

-"I see you require practice. A lot of it."- said the Batter, his voice slightly muffled as he laid on the floor.

Taylor blushed harder.

 **{A probably noncanon Omake #3}**

As Contessa watched a video of a new Brockton Bay parahuman, only one thought ran through her mind.

She needed that hat.

"Path to gaining snazzy hat!"

A door appeared.

As the Batter was putting away his disguise, a white doorway appeared. He looked at it, half expecting Zacharie to walk out. Instead a classy dressed woman stepped out.

They stared at each other.

"I'm sorry."

The strange women grabbed Danny's hat and booked it through her portal.

How odd. He hoped that didn't happen often around here.

 **:)**


	7. Chapter 7

**I didn't mention it, but with chapter 6 added (and this one), this fic is now over 10,000 words.**

 **And 2000+ views.**

 **Go me.**

 ***Blows party noisemaker***

 **I hope Valerie seemed a bit OFF-putting. I spent forever writing his text, goddamn.**

 **Probably shortest author's commentary so far.**

 **Shame I don't have much to say this time.**

 **I kind of enjoy our one sided chats.**

 **I wonder what that says about me…**

 **Probably nothing good.**

 ***Shrugs***

 **Eh, well, here's chapter 7.**

"Text" is a human speaking.

-"Text"- is the Batter speaking.

 **"** **Text" is a monster speaking, or text with emphasis on the word.**

Purifying Brockton Bay

Chapter 7 – Suspicions

 _Smoke._

 _"_ _As the first of the four elements… It's an important element. Because without smoke, people would have nothing to breathe."_

 _Metal._

 _"_ _As the second of the four elements… It's an important element. Because without metal, people would have nothing to walk on. They would sink and drown."_

 _Plastic._

 _"_ _As the third of the four elements… It's an important element. Because without plastic, the world would have no boundaries. People would walk and walk without ever stopping."_

 _Meat._

 _"_ _As the forth of the four elements… It's an important element. Because without meat, people would have nothing to eat. They would die of starvation, one after another."_

 _Sugar._

 _"_ _It's a secret element… The fifth element… The most important element… Because without sugar, people could not bear reality, and they would go_ _ **mad**_ _."_

 _Even if it was made of themselves._

 ** _[You have (1) new upgrades available!]_**

 _[Check available upgrade(s) list]_

 ** _[Avatar Desensitization is available. Would you like to install?]_**

 ** _[Y/N]_**

 _[Y]_

 ** _[Installing…]_**

Taylor Herbert woke to the sound of her alarm clock. Groaning, she sleepily protruded an arm from the comforts of her bed to find the infernal device. She clumsily touched various parts of her bedside table before finally locating her objective. A fist slammed down on it like the wrath of a god.

She reached for her glasses, only for her hand to pause.

Oh right, she didn't need them anymore. The Batter had cured her vision when he rescued her from the locker. She still had yet to break the habit of reaching for them in the morning.

Taylor reluctantly left the sweet, sweet embrace of her bed. She put her feet to the floor, and made her way to the upstairs bathroom. As she groggily brushed her teeth, Taylor thought about the past few days of her life.

She didn't go back to school. Partly due to the fact it had been closed for a few months under repairs. It turns out that Batter destroyed a part of the floor which caused structural issues in the already falling apart school. Serves them right.

Taylor instead took online classes provided by her school to keep up with her schoolwork. Unsurprisingly, she liked it better this way. No bullies, no teachers afraid of rocking the boat, no gangs. Just her and her projection, who despite being quiet and off-putting most of the time, was far more pleasant company than anyone at Winslow.

Kinda sad really, that she was more comfortable in the Batter's presence than she ever had been at Winslow since Emma turned on her.

Since then, she had spent the past few months practicing with her strings. The Batter had served as her test dummy ever since then, present for her every trial and error in controlling her power.

Taylor had gotten more used to the Batter's presence over the course of those few weeks. She stopped feeling uncomfortable around his presence a few days in. Which was strange. She thought she'd be a little more than not okay that her projection had 4 eyes and had creepily dragged her to some kind of afterlife, but when she thought about it, it hadn't caused her much worry, almost accepting it as "normal".

Was her power doing something to her mind?

It bothered Taylor a lot, but she couldn't find a good way to bring it up with the Batter.

Her worries aside, she had improved leaps and bounds since her first disastrous attempt. She was now capable of making the Batter dance, jump, and much more.

He really didn't like it when she made him dance. Oh petty revenge, how she loved it.

But getting back on track, her powers.

The weird gloves she found in that afterlife place could be summoned at will, and disappeared when she didn't need them. She mentally filed it with the rest of the weird bullshit that was her power.

Taylor had discovered many things about her strings in those short few weeks. For starters, they could extend a long distance, and go through objects while connected to The Batter. At a certain point they disappeared completely, and two spectral versions of her hands with strings attached would fly above whatever she was controlling. Taylor found if she closed her eyes while doing this, she could spectate from above Batter's head. There hadn't seemed to be a distance limit for her power.

Maybe it had something to do with her connection to Batter.

Speaking of the Batter, she had noticed him getting restless over the past few weeks. Taylor had kept a tight leash on him ever since he beat Glory Girl to prevent a repeat of the incident. If he was going to walk around outside, it would be under her supervision.

This hadn't helped when he saw that Canberra was being attacked by the Simurgh, and he wanted to go fight it. Taylor frankly wanted nothing to do with an Endbringer fight, not when her cape career hadn't even started.

It wasn't very heroic, but there was a fine line in being heroic and being stupid. The only thing she could really contribute to the fight was Batter, and she didn't even know his limits yet.

She admittedly, had not immediately sprung to finding out the Batter's capabilities. Learning how to use her strings efficiently had taken priority.

Well, he could rest easy, because soon, she would take him out to the Boat graveyard to exactly know what his limits where. And also do her first patrol as a hero. Sure, she had seen the fight between him and GG, but there was a huge difference in watching it from a bad quality video and seeing the event yourself.

If Taylor was being honest with herself, she was quite excited. Those ring things that Batter summoned looked interesting. She wondered if they could do anything else besides shooting projectiles.

 **{Line Break}**

If the Batter was being honest with himself, he was feeling bored right now.

Really bored.

Apparently, his Player was still 'grounding' him for his little excursion the first night out. Bah, it wasn't like he was looking for a fight.

…

Okay, fine, he totally was. But it wasn't like he expected to be attacked by Gloryhole either.

Still, thanks to the wondrous powers of the internet, he had found out much about this world. For one, The Collapse never happened. That was kind of obvious though.

He looked up all the local heroes and villains, and was already planning strategies should Taylor (or He) would be forced to fight them.

They should probably go after the Merchants first. From what he gained, they were the weakest gang in this city, and were underestimated as a result.

Batter knew better. The 'heroes' had convinced themselves the drug peddlers were no threat, letting them prey on the weak and helpless.

He planned on rectifying that as soon as Taylor got her composure up and was ready to actually start doing this hero thing.

She had done nothing but practice since she became her Player. Though, she had needed that time to get used to her strings. She really had been really bad with them at first.

In the Batter's newfound boredom, he had discovered the wonder that was coffee. Truly a marvelous substance. How had this not survived The Collapse in his world?

Idly, he sipped a cup while sitting on the couch in the living room.

Danny came and went. It was a repetitive schedule.

In retrospect, how had he gone from walking in limbo to this? Sitting in an alternate universe sipping the drink of the gods?

He realized he was getting of topic. After his Player's…. interesting….. first attempt she had improved leaps and bounds. Even if she made him dance that one time.

She was lucky she was **his** Player. If it had been anyone else, he would have killed them slowly for making him suffer such humiliation. Zacharie's face appeared in his mind. He mentally pictured driving his bat into that smug masked face. It helped his irritation some.

He was still upset she wouldn't let him go purify that overgrown angel. Batter knew why she didn't, but that didn't mean he had to like it.

He heard Taylor come downstairs. He turned his head to the stairwell.

Taylor stood there, with a smile on her face.

"I'm thinking that tonight, we go out and see what you can really do."

Batter didn't show any change in expression, but Taylor got the impression he was relieved.

Finally. He was getting tired of being cooped up in here.

He got up, cracking his neck.

-"Wondered when you were going to let me do something."- Not an ounce of emotion in his voice. Taylor could feel the irritation though.

Taylor sighed. She couldn't blame him.

"Look, I'm sorry that I-"

The Batter waved her off.

-"It's fine. I would have probably started another fight with "heroes" anyway. It's… an unfortunate habit of mine."-

Taylor raised an eyebrow.

"You go looking for fights?"

-"More like they find me."- No emotion.

She couldn't really say anything to that. She went back upstairs to her room. It had been pretty unlucky, running into Glory Girl like that. Something seemed a little off with his wording though.

Like it was a usual thing for him.

Taylor had long since realized that since the linking that the Batter didn't act like a normal projection should. He, despite seemingly emotionless at times, possessed a sentience that most projections weren't capable of. The Batter also didn't seem to have an off switch. Ever since she woke up naked in front of him in her school, he hadn't needed to be "refreshed" like most projections did. But if he wasn't a projection, than what was he?

 _What are you, a_ _ **monster**_ _under that hat?_

 _The Batter jerked, and his smile strained._

Taylor had said that line without thinking, but had gotten such a strong reaction out of Batter. There was definitely something he wasn't telling her. Amongst over things. She still hadn't gotten an explanation about Zone -1 from him, but he clearly knew something. Taylor shivered at the memories of that place. So… unnatural.

It was then Taylor realized that The Batter knew more than her powers than she did.

Taylor wasn't ready to confront him on this.

She got a feeling that she wouldn't like the answer, assuming her suspicions about her "projection" not actually being a projection were correct.

But her worries were relatively unimportant right now. Batter, despite his silent grouching, still listened to her and hadn't shown her any protest.

That was more than she could say with her experiences with authority figures. Projection or not, the Batter seemed to be on her side at least. Taylor was grateful for that.

Even if he was creepy sometimes.

Taylor began sifting through her closet, looking for appropriate clothes to serve as a cheap "costume".

 **Taylor may be socially awkward as hell, but she's a smart cookie.**

 **Since I'm frankly too impatient to wait further in the fic where the PRT writes a complete threat assessment of The Batter, I'll just give you his ratings now.**

 **Consider it an early Christmas present or something.**

 **I probably shouldn't even be giving it to you this early. (At least wait for the next chapter)**

 **Fuck it.**

 **I'm mainly giving you guys this as an apology for not letting the Batter fight the Simurgh in Canberra. I don't feel like my writing skills are to the point I can do that fight justice. And the fact that nothing really happened this chapter.**

 **Also, Taylor's abilities aren't finished developing yet.**

 **Sorry. Anyway…**

 **Here. Just take the damn thing. Before I change my mind.**

 ***Throws you a folder of The Batter's abilities***

 **SHIT THE AUTHOR SHOULDN'T BE GIVING YOU (yet) INCOMING**

 **{Threat Assessment: The Batter}**

 **[] are the capabilities of Batter in his human form.**

 **{} are the capabilities in his Bad Batter form.**

 **Stranger [1] – The Batter slightly manipulates shadows to hide his eyes. His secondary eyes that are used for the ability Wide Angle are disguised as eye black.**

 **Mover [4] {8} in human form, The Batter moves fast enough to completely overwhelm normal soldiers or unskilled parahumans. In Bad Batter form, speed is increased to staggering levels. The Bad Batter cannot fly or teleport, but damn can he run.**

 **Brute [3] {8} The Batter surprisingly is not as strong as he is without his bat, but is strong enough to overpower unpowered soldiers and parahumans without a higher brute rating. The Bad Batter is exceptionally stronger, and does not require his bat to cause damage.**

 **Blaster [5] {7} The Add-Ons are capable of many versatile effects, some do damage, and others cause debilitating effects. They are also capable of healing to an extent. In their true form, the Add-Ons do higher damage than they did previously.**

 **Striker [8] {?} The Batter's strength is exceptionally higher when he is attacking with a bat. He is capable of holding back, but even in his human form, is capable of outright killing most parahumans except the toughest of Brutes swinging at his full ability. A black shadowy substance has been noted to coat his bat, increasing its strength. In Bad Batter form swinging his bat will result in- [ERROR]**

 **Changer {10+} - The Batter's Bad Batter form is extremely dangerous, and has been significantly buffed to be capable of fighting on equal footing with an Endbringer. Unfortunately, as a result, The Batter loses all form of self-control in this state, and will attack everything in view. His assigned Player will have to be exceptionally skilled if they want to control his actions at this stage. As a side effect of Bad Batter, The Batter cannot be mastered by anyone other than a Player, and an attempt by a non-assigned Master will result in terrible backlash and be unsuccessful.**

 **Taylor will get her assessment much later in the fic.**

 **When she has all her abilities.**

 **This chapter did not want to be written. I had to rewrite it at least once, because I wanted to do the Simurgh fight the first time, and halfway through realized I was out of my depth to write it properly. Then, writer's block struck.**

 **I feel that this chapter is subpar compared to the first 6 chapters.**

 **What this chapter could have been…**

 **Just so I can look at this later, it is currently March 1** **st** **, 2011.**

 **Few days after Canberra.**

 **See you … next... chapter.**

 ***Falls asleep at desk***

 **Zzz…**


	8. Chapter 8

**After much needed rest, I am back in action.**

 **Jesus. I just looked at the part near the end of chapter 7 on FF dot net, and man is that spacing atrocious. I really should have combined a few sentences together.**

 **I write these chapters on Microsoft word. The lines look better when I haven't uploaded them yet, and they get stretched by FF dot net's formatting.**

 **(*Obligatory grumbling about FF's formatting*)**

 **I was kind of out of it when writing last chapter. Don't worry, I'm fine now.**

 **Reviews!**

 **Oh dear, we have one of THOSE people commenting.**

 **frytrix: Well, no one asked you. If you don't like my author notes, then don't read them. Otherwise, shove off. I'm not tolerating reviews that do nothing but criticize the author for his choices without giving a legitimate reason other than not "liking" it. What are you, 5? Post another pathetic excuse for a review on this fic like the one you just posted, and you will be ignored.**

 **I'll do what I damn please. I'm writing this for my pleasure, not to satisfy your every whim. The author's commentary stays.**

 **That goes for anyone else who comments. If you're going to criticize me, have an actual, legitimate reason unlike this guy (or gal). Look at Edale, for example. Edale is a good role model. I fucked up on certain aspects of the story, and he (or she) pointed it out and told me what I did wrong. I implore you to strive to be the same at criticizing as Edale. Otherwise, I'm just going to ignore you.**

 **Moving on…**

 **Grumpycat42: Last chapter was a onetime only thing. I needed a time skip chapter because without Taylor in the hospital/recovering, she needed to be doing something for a couple months. She really needs to be good with those strings if she wants to use her power properly. I also don't think Danny would be appreciative if the Batter blew a few holes in the basement with his Add-Ons. Or bat. He'd probably break the house's foundation if he used his bat.**

 **Edale: Damn it, you're right. *slams face into desk* (ow…)**

 **Reevaluating Mover rating… Please stand by…**

 **Ok.**

 **The Bad Batter is technically a Run Mover, but has the ability to leap great distances into the air and come back down without breaking his legs. Meaning if the Simurgh was flying 100 or so feet above a city, Bad Batter could jump high enough after building up enough speed, give the Simurgh a love tap, and fall back down without serious repercussions. If he were to race alongside Leviathan on dry land while the Endbringer is in the water, he could keep up. If Bad Batter was in deep enough water, Leviathan would be faster. If it's less than 3 feet of water Bad Batter is running through, due to his large frame, he won't be hindered at all. Anything more would slow him down. The main reason I made his Mover rating so high was because of his leaping capacity, which I forgot to mention in the Mover description.**

 **{Sigh} I hope this isn't becoming a trend, me forgetting to list certain aspects about powers. Keep in mind that this iteration of The Bad Batter is way stronger than he ever was in OFF.**

 **The Batter [human form] is still a Mover 4.**

 **Since the Bad Batter can't fly or teleport, but moves fast enough to keep up with an Endbringer if his path is relatively unobstructed (He won't give a shit about buildings in his way {He's getting his nonexistent money's worth out of that Brute 8 durability}, talking more about large bodies of water or giant crevices of doom) and can jump great heights without much effort and little risk, he is now a Mover 7.**

 **That's all I'm budging on his Mover rating.**

 **Now that we have that out OFF the way, let's proceed with the chapter.**

"Text" is normal talk. You speak normal talk.

-"Text"- is Batter talk. If your pancakes are talking to you, seek a doctor.

 **"** **Text" is inhuman talk. Its blacker, which means it really stands out on this white background.** **Or alternatively, if you press Story Contrast, its whiter, which means it really stands out on this black background.**

Purifying Brockton Bay

Chapter 8 – Power Testing

It was time. Taylor had finally gotten enough practice and resolve to start her career as a parahuman or 'cape', as she called it. Even if she didn't even have a cape on that collection of clothes she called a "costume".

 _Humans are weird_ , thought the Batter.

Not that he could really talk. He dressed like a baseball player and had went around maiming ghosts with a baseball bat. Looking back on it, that could be considered "weird" too.

Batter looked at Taylor's 'costume'. It consisted of a pair of boots her father owned that had laces on them, black jeans with a belt, a hoodie with a scarf built in that was themed after a hero, Miss Militia if he remembered correctly, a pair of sunglasses (It's night, what are you doing human), and lastly, her puppeteer gloves. Batter wasn't a fashion expert by any means, but even he could tell it looked… less than desirable.

-"Are you sure you want to go out wearing that?"-

"Shut up."

It was late at night.

The Batter and his Player had waited for her father to fall asleep. They then snuck out of the house and walked down to the docks.

Eventually, they reached the area of Brockton Bay deemed as the "Boat Graveyard". It, according to Taylor, was the perfect place to test his 'powers' out, seeing as the gangs and PRT usually stayed away from the area.

Taylor dragged him to an abandoned pier. The place looked like it had been untouched for years and left to rot. There was trash on the ground, the wood on the pier itself had seen better days, and if one looked out into the harbor, they would see the many wrecked ships of various shapes and sizes off in the distance. Probably why the docks were so abandoned. The various sunken ships were clogging up the mouth of the bay. Some were mostly sunk, while others seemed to be left there anchored and do nothing but rust until they sank.

Human laziness. If the city actually got off its ass and removed at least half the abandoned floating ships in the harbor, they could probably have a shipping industry again.

Taylor stopped and turned around. Her voice came out slightly muffled behind the scarf she was wearing.

"Ok, so now we're here, let's start with those ring things that you summoned."

Wordlessly, the Batter summoned his Add-Ons. They flickered into existence behind him.

-"They are called Add-Ons. Alpha, Omega, and Elipson respectively."-

Taylor moved closer to the Batter, trying to look at the Add-Ons behind him. He stepped out of the way, allowing her access to them.

She reached out a hand to Alpha, but stopped just short of touching him. Taylor sent him a look of one asking for permission.

"Can I touch it?"

Getting a nod from the Batter, Taylor carefully put a hand to the aforementioned "Add-On". It was smooth, like marble, and radiated a slight warmth. 'Alpha' reacted to her touch by levitating up and down rapidly, the action reminiscent of what an excited pet might do. It then circled above Taylor's head energetically. Taylor giggled.

"I think it likes me!"

The other two Add-Ons, Omega and Elipson, floated closer to his Player curiously. When Taylor turned around to face them, they got closer. She touched them too. They responded positively to the attention, and both joined Alpha in circling around Taylor. She laughed.

Taylor looked happy. The happiest Batter had seen her yet. He purposely overlooked the fact that currently, his Add-Ons were acting more like overly-affectionate pets than purifying beings.

"So what are these guys capable of?"

Batter decided that showing her would be the fastest approach, and save him having to give a long winded explanation.

-"Alpha."- The Add-On stopped circling Taylor's head and sprung to attention. He pointed at a half sunken ship off in the distance.

-"Hit that."-

The Add On glowed blue, and out of the middle of its ring shot out an enormous chain travelling with what looked to be a large amount of force behind it. It hit the side of the wreck with a distant CLANG. The oversized chain, after hanging there connected to both Alpha and the ship for a brief moment, dispersed into white light.

Taylor squinted her eyes. It was hard to see, but there, in the far off distance, was a giant hole in the top side of the ship. She whistled.

"Nice. Can he do anything else that's not as… lethal?"

The Batter responded by pointing at a nearby dumpster. Alpha glowed once more, and fired a large amount of smaller chains similar to what was observed in the Glory Girl video. They left the dumpster heavily dented.

-"Alpha is also capable of shooting special chains which upon impact, cause poison, muteness, blindness, and palsy."-

"Palsy?"

-"Paralysis."-

Taylor scrunched her eyebrows.

"Sounds more like a disease."

The Batter grunted noncommittedly.

-"Next, Omega."-

Omega didn't seem to have to be instructed by the Batter. It rotated aimlessly a few times, searching for a target. It then stopped, facing another dumpster, this one further away. Omega glowed blue, like Alpha. A _whoosh_ noise could be heard, as Omega proceeded to fire what appeared to be 'blurs' in the air. The almost invisible projectiles hit the dumpster, punching holes cleanly through it, causing trash to flow out of the newly made holes of varying sizes.

-"Omega is also capable of healing ailments, like blindness, muteness, poison, sleep, anger, madness, and palsy to a certain degree. It was able to fix most of the injuries you had with various Perspectives."-

Wow. That was a lot. Almost like a budget version of Panacea. Except with the whole anger, madness thing. Taylor heard Panacea couldn't do brains.

The Batter hesitated for a moment.

-"It also seems to be able to prevent death."-

Taylor didn't know what to say. Preventing death? It seemed ridiculous.

"How do you know?"

-"You were the first human I've ever used it on."-

…Oh.

The Batter, picking up on Taylor's sudden depression, decided to quickly move on before she could ponder the fact she almost died any longer. He clapped his hands once, to get her attention.

-"Last is Elipson. It is capable of providing blessings, or buffs, if you want, to its desired target. They increase attack, defense, intelligence, and agility."-

Batter pointed at the dented dumpster that Alpha smashed up earlier.

-"It can also do this."-

Elipson glowed, and little flashing orbs came out of the space between its ring. They floated innocently, in a lazy manner, to the dumpster. Then, the first orb made contact.

The resulting explosion blew back Taylor's hood.

She would have fallen over in surprise, but The Batter, having expected such a reaction, had extended an arm to catch her when she fell backwards. She thanked him as she struggled to regain her bearings. Taylor looked at where the dumpster had been.

There was a smoking crater where the dumpster once stood. She turned to the Batter.

"Don't use that on anyone except Brutes. I mean it."

The Batter attempted to look innocent, but inwardly he crushed a feeling of disappointment.

Darn.

"Is that their full capabilities, or do they have something else up their sleeves?"

Batter frowned.

-"They don't have sleeves."-

Taylor face palmed and sighed.

"Sorry, what I meant was, is there anything else they can do?"

Batter tilted his head.

-"No, That's it."-

Taylor then spent the next few minutes gushing over the Add-Ons. They enjoyed the attention.

After she was done, she pointed to him.

"Your turn."

She instructed him to try and lift an empty dumpster. After some struggling, he was holding it over his head. Taylor signaled him to put it down. He threw it. The dumpster landed unceremoniously on its side.

"Definitely a Brute, the Add-Ons make you a Blaster too…"

She paused, remembering The Batter's 4 eyes.

"Are you a Changer?"

-"Yes, but it would be unsafe to change form while you are still so inexperienced with your strings."-

Taylor replied with indignation.

"Hey, I'm great with my strings!"

-"You are not great enough."-

Taylor pouted. Due to the fact that her face was covered, it had no effect upon Batter whatsoever.

-"No."-

Taylor waved her hands, rolling her eyes.

"Fine, fine…"

She pulled out a baseball. Taylor forced it into his hands.

"You're definitely a Striker, though. Hit this as **hard** as you can."

Batter appraised the ball. It was an ordinary baseball one could find in a store. She must have had one lying around, or she bought it.

-"Alright."-

Batter scanned the area for a suitable target. That large, dilapidated ship perched on the edge of the harbor looked like it was being an eyesore. He'd remedy that.

Taylor watched in silent anticipation from a safe distance.

The Batter threw the ball into the air. He watched as it spun around and around.

Absently, his bat became engulfed in a shadowy substance, more intense than it ever had been before.

The ball began to fall.

The Batter readied his bat, winding up for an ultimate homerun.

The ball fell just within range and-

The Batter **SWUNG** his bat.

 **[Ultimate Homerun]**

 ** _CRACK_**

One second, the ball was there. The next, it wasn't. A very loud, indescribable noise that probably the whole city could hear thundered from the Batter's location. The mere ball became a glowing red comet as it burned up from the speed it was going.

It, going too fast for the mere human eye to track, approached its target.

The tiny comet, no, meteor, made contact with the ship.

The impact made the ship **rise** out of the water and flip over sideways violently, leaving a large chunk of the upper middle part of the ship completely gone.

Taylor Herbert watched bug eyed, as her jaw tried to extend more than was physically possible. Her ears were ringing. She watched, awestruck, as the ship began to sink. She turned the priceless, and slightly hysterical look on her face towards the Batter.

No way. No FUCKING way. That was a TANKER. HE HIT THE BALL SO HARD IT FUCKING FLIPPED OVER A TANKER.

The Batter, who had his hand on his hat and was inspecting his handiwork, absently replied-

-"How'd I do?"-

He said it so **naturally**. Taylor felt her knees weaken from disbelief.

She fainted. Luckily, the Add-Ons caught her.

The Batter ran over to his player's side.

He had Omega use Overdone Perspective.

Taylor's eyes opened. She bolted up and looked at the still sinking tanker.

She fainted again.

Annoyed, The Batter made Omega use Overdone Perspective again.

She opened her eyes, bolted upwards to look at the tanker, and fainted yet again.

The Batter sighed. This was going to be a long night, wasn't it?

 **{A probably noncanon Omake #4}**

As Thomas Calvert, secretly known as Coil sat in his Bond-esque lair, he glanced out at the city of Brockton Bay.

Which soon, if he played his cards right, would be his.

He idly sipped a cup of coffee as he glanced out at the eyesore of Brockton Bay, more commonly known as the Boat Graveyard.

Specifically at the huge tanker what sat on the harbor's shelf.

It would take months to remove that. Coil sighed. Despite his selfish intentions, he truly wanted to fix up Brockton Bay to the glory it once had.

Suddenly, a very loud crack was heard. It shattered some windows, but that wasn't what got Coil's attention.

No, that honor belonged to the tanker, which was currently doing its best impression of a whale surfacing and doing a flip right now.

Coil spat out his coffee.

"WHAT?!"

 **We didn't get to see the Mover rating, primarily because it seemed better to end the chapter at Taylor fainting.**

 **I hope the revelation of that Striker rating didn't break her.**


	9. Chapter 9

**After much consideration [Author only considered it for 2 mins], I am putting a humor tag on this fic. The Omakes. It's for the Omakes. And maybe the normal story too…**

 **Now all of you who came here for some gory action, don't get your panties in a twist. There is a horror tag and M rating slapped on here for a reason.**

 **It's just that this story hasn't even reached first base yet. The batter has only (literally) just hit the ball. Not even dropped the bat to start running.**

 **I admit, I didn't expect this fic to remain fairly light hearted with a sprinkle of light horror for so long. I'm almost tempted to turn this into a crack fic.**

 **For some reason, I feel like it would become something of epic proportions.**

 **But I won't, don't worry. I have a standard to set as the first Worm x OFF crossover. I** **can** **write proper gory horror stuff, now just how to introduce it…**

 ***Groans in frustration***

 **Why do you have to be such a Lawful Goody Good, Taylor?! It's not like she will just all of a sudden be ok with the Batter murdering gang parahumans!**

 **Argh. Dumb morals.**

 **I'll need to be especially creative (and careful) in incorporating the darker horror aspect of this story. Thanks for making my life harder, Taylor.**

 **Goody two shoes. Bah, I'll make it work. Somehow.**

 **Wait a minute...**

 ***Lightbulb appears***

 **Blimey. I've had a stroke of brilliance! I'll- [This paragraph has been removed]**

 **[Author, don't spoil your own story. On that note, writer's block averted.]**

 **89ingenting: In this fic, the Add-Ons do have sentience. Of a sort. They'll never talk though. As for Glory Girl thinking Batter was Alabaster, there is literally no other man in that city who gets that chalk white skin tone. Reason why he was saddled with that name. As for E88, they would probably try to get him to join their pathetic little club. Too bad for them the Batter isn't actually human and doesn't understand the concept of racism, seeing as humanity/Elsen in OFF all look the same. He only truly cares for his Player, seeing as she's his only hope for a purpose right now. As for Thinkers, well, Tattletale's gonna have a doozy when she looks at him. Telling you what she'll see though would be spoilers.**

 **Ghest/Frostyman122: The reason Batter's striker rating is only an 8 is because it is restricted to his bat (and other melee shaped objects), which for the length, is about 3 feet. If his bat could extend like Jack Slash's power, than yeah it would be probably 10 or above. That's a scary thought, now that I think about it… As for killing Endbringers well… According to the Worm wiki, they're made out of a hella lot of crystal layers or something. If they can survive hundreds of parahumans wailing on them, well, it probably won't be as easy as your thinking. They will definitely feel it, though.**

 **Food for thought. What do you think would have happened if the Batter had hit the tanker point blank with ultimate homerun?**

 **ultima-owner: Yes. That is quite swing. Much swing, such wow.**

 **This chapter is really long. 4000+ words, I think.**

 **Tonight's fanfiction dish comes with a side OFF fish** **batter** **.**

 ***Crickets chirping***

 **Okay fine, that was pretty bad. And weird. I'll never make a food pun like that ever again, I promise.**

"Text"-ing is bad on the road. Don't do it kids.

-"Text"-book is something you'll need for college. Expensive.

 **"** **Text"-less is something FF isn't. You're reading text right now.**

Purifying Brockton Bay

Chapter 9 – Cape Life, Start!

Taylor opened her eyes. It was blurry at first but eventually, her vision cleared up. Batter was standing ominously above her, glowing white eyes visible, holding a very rusty bucket. Presumably filled with water.

"Batter, I swear to god, if you dump that on me-"

The Batter startled, and tossed the bucket behind him. It landed with a _kersploosh_ into the harbor behind him.

-"Oh course not."-

Taylor gave him an unimpressed look. He didn't react. Damn, he was good at the art of the poker face.

-"Well, nothing else seemed to work. You kept fainting."-

Taylor scrunched her eyebrows. She fainted? Why…. Oh yeah. Her 'projection' levelled a tanker. Taylor felt faint. Batter gave her what she assumed to be a piercing glare behind the shadow of his hat.

-"Player, if you faint one more time, I will tie one of Alpha's chains around you, and throw you into the harbor."-

She quickly got up to avoid the Batter carrying out his promise. Taylor had been laying on top of a rusty bench, probably carried there by the Batter. She put a hand slowly to her head.

"No, no, I'm fine now. But… I must have been dreaming, because I think I saw you sink a tanker… with nothing but a ball?"

She said that last part in a hopeful tone of voice. Batter shattered that hope.

-"Well, you remember what happened twenty three minutes ago, so that's good."-

Taylor whimpered.

"So… all of that was real? You can do… that?"

-"If you have another baseball, I could repeat it."-

She quickly shook her head. Holy shit. Her 'projection' was powerful. Really powerful. Maybe on the same level as the Triumvirate. Alright, maybe that was going a little too far, but still, powerful.

"N-no, that's fine. Just give me a minute, alright?"

Batter nodded.

Now, the hard question. What to do with such power?

Taylor was originally planning on becoming your average hero, and joining the Wards, but…

She glanced at the Batter, who was polishing his bat with a rag he found somewhere.

There was no way in hell the PRT would let her go unsupervised with that kind of power at her disposal. They'd tie her down in restrictions, and Taylor didn't want that.

Batter had had a very long argument with her against joining the Wards, and on a larger scale, the PRT. He called it a waste of time, and he seemed to be right to a degree. Taylor couldn't remember the last time that the PRT had done anything actually useful. The villains they captured on occasion always escaped when being transported to other prisons, and they seemed to be, in general, quoting Batter, "Utterly useless and only concerned in making themselves look good".

Ouch. Still, she couldn't deny Batter wasn't right. The PRT had always been there, but they hadn't done anything useful during the past few years of her life. Failure to send Lung to the Birdcage, for example.

She still wanted to see what the Wards were like, just in case.

Though, deep down, Taylor feared it would just be high school with superpowers.

-"So…"-

Taylor was broken out of her musings. She looked up at the Batter.

-"Now that we've done this power testing thing, why don't we go and be "heroes".-

"You just want to fight someone, don't you?"

-"Yes."-

She sighed. Taylor seemed to be doing that a lot these days.

"Ok how about we-"

The Batter scooped her up in a bridal carry. Taylor blushed.

"What are you-"

The Batter crouched his legs briefly, and then he leaped. Taylor screamed as the Batter accelerated through the air and easily landed on a warehouse roof.

He continued doing this for the next few minutes. Like a demented, super powered, traceur. Taylor's screams of horror turned to yells of joy as she became more and more reassured the Batter wouldn't drop her.

 **{Traceur is apparently what a person who does parkour is called, according to Google. Don't ask me, I don't know either.}**

Looking out from her impromptu carry she could see the lights and sights of Brockton Bay go by. It wasn't flying, but it was better than nothing. She heard gunfire in the distance. The Batter's frame angled itself toward the noise.

After a few more leaps, they arrived at their destination. With one last enthusiastic jump, The Batter landed on the street, slightly cracking the asphalt from his… weight? How heavy was he?

The Batter let her down. Taylor observed the situation. A group of ABB and Merchants were having a gunfight. She could see civilians running away from the skirmish, and several what looked like but hoped weren't unmoving bodies on the ground.

She looked to her side. Batter looked ready to go, and was letting the end of his bat fall into his hand and back up repeatedly. He was presumably waiting for her signal. She motioned for him to go do his thing.

"Remember, don't hit them too hard!"

The Batter nodded. Straightening his shoulders, he adopted a batter's stance, the one before they hit the ball. An Add-on appeared behind him. Sticking a thumbs up behind his back at one ring, he directed his hand to her. The Add-On flew from his position and was now at Taylor's back. He yelled -"Alpha!"- At her.

Taylor appreciated the gesture. She had her strings, but if someone got close and she missed… Taylor shook her head.

 _Don't back out now Taylor, you got this!_

The Batter, satisfied that Alpha would protect her, proclaimed-

-"Purification in progress."- And dashed, no, blurred forward towards the ABB gangsters.

Taylor, behind her hood and scarf, frowned. For a catchphrase, it wasn't shabby, but the context and way he said it… was just off. Sinister, even. Mentally, Taylor shrugged. She could question him later on it.

Taylor turned toward the Merchants. They were a sorry lot, covered in filth and probably smelled like it, too. Taylor arched her hand back, and threw it forward in a way similar to how one would use a fishing rod.

Silver, almost spectral, strings came out of the holes in her gloves. They arched forwards to the Merchant closest to her.

They wrapped around his limbs without instruction. Success. The Merchant jerked, and dropped his gun. Unsurprisingly, he began swearing. The Merchant had found his limbs would no longer move when he wanted them to move. Taylor applied control to the telepathic paddle in her head and made the Merchant grab a pipe and jerkily rush towards his comrades.

Said closest comrade, a women with really bad teeth and bloodshot eyes, was now the proud new owner of a nasty bump on her head. Taylor grimaced. It wasn't heroic, but it got the job done. What else was she supposed to do, shoot her? So far her control only extended to one human shaped target at a time. The Batter told her the more she used her strings, the better her control would get.

Another reason she was skeptical in joining the Wards. Taylor was well aware of the comparisons between her and the Simurgh. More likely she would be thrown in the Birdcage. She was hoping she could play it off as something less than it actually was, but she was doubtful. Maybe fake a time limit?

If things didn't turn out well between her and the PRT, at least she had her freakishly overpowered 'projection' to help her.

She directed her unwilling puppet to attack the other Merchant's, and switched control from body to body, knocking out the ones she controlled by making them get in Alpha's firing line. Taylor found out by yelling "sleep chain" out loud would make Alpha fire said chain. For a giant ring, he (it?) was smart.

Eventually, Taylor finished on her side. She looked over. Batter was dragging the last knocked out ABB member by the back of his shirt and threw him into a pile of ABB bodies. Alive, but knocked out bodies, that was. He obeyed her orders and didn't kill anyone. Good.

Taylor suddenly felt pain erupt across her arm. A Merchant had sneaked up on her, and had slashed a knife across her arm. Cursing, she stepped back as the Merchant lunged forward the gut her.

Suddenly, a metal bat blurred in front of the druggie's face, end of the bat facing the Merchant. Taylor watched in seemingly slow motion as it proceeded to collide with his jaw with a crack. She winced. That definitely broke his jaw. The man fell to the ground, frothing blood and was unconscious. The bat landed on the ground making a clank noise and rolled to Taylor's feet.

Alpha proceeded to bury the man under a pile of chains.

Taylor turned her head around. The Batter had thrown his bat with pinpoint accuracy, all the way from across the street.

"Thank you!"

-"Be more careful."-

Then, a monster truck/ tank hybrid busted through a wall. From where Taylor could see, The Batter had pulled out another bat from- somewhere, and was looking up at the abomination.

 **{Line Break}**

Batter had no idea what the hell that thing was supposed to be, but he was going to enjoy breaking it. The thing pointed a giant metal tube at him, and fired a giant iron ball.

Huh.

The Batter swung his bat at the projectile, forcing it to go through an expensive looking window on a building nearby.

Behind him, Taylor cringed at the property damage.

The women in the driver's seat of that thing yelled something unkind about his mother, and proceeded to try and run him over. The Batter simply jumped up onto the hood of the vehicle, and smashed his way through the windshield with his bat. He reached a hand inside the vehicle.

Squealer got dragged out through the broken windshield from the neck, kicking and screaming. Batter tucked her under his arm like one would a disobedient animal. He paid no mind to Squealer scratching at him. Walking over to Taylor, he dumped Squealer on the ground and hit her one handed with his bat in the head. Squealer's eyes rolled into the back of her head, and fell unconscious.

Taylor got Alpha to wrap her up in chains, while Batter walked over back to the vehicular monstrosity. Black aura wrapping around his bat, he swung his implement down on the hood.

The vehicle imploded inwards from the impact, and started smoking. Batter walked back to her. Taylor handed him his first bat. He disappeared the second one and reclaimed his first one.

-"Well, hero, how do you feel?"-

"Excited, and a little overwhelmed. Did you need to be so brutal, though?"

-"I use a blunt instrument as my form of attack. I could try shoving it through their chests if you are unsatisfied."- Replied Batter in a neutral but sardonic tone.

Taylor flushed. He had a point.

-"Do you want to wait around for the PRT, or leave?"-

Before Taylor triggered, she would have said stay and meet the PRT. But The Batter had shaken her faith in the PRT. Add in the Master effect of her powers, and yeah, Taylor wasn't that eager to meet them. Yet.

She could hear a distinct whine in the distance. Taylor recognized it as Armsmaster's bike from Paratube videos.

"Let's go."

Batter scooped her up once more, and they were moving rapidly from building top to building top.

A minute after Batter took off, a highly advanced bike rounded the corner. A man, dressed in midnight blue power armor, stepped off the bike and frowned at the beat up gang members.

 **{Another line break}**

Our dynamic duo were back at Taylor's house. The full reality of what Taylor had just done was currently smacking her upside the head. The Batter meanwhile, was wrapping a bandage around Taylor's arm.

He frowned. Taylor wasn't bulletproof like him, and didn't wear any armor. If she was going to keep going out with him she needed armor. But it was expensive. What could he…

The Batter had an idea. It wasn't the best, but it would give Taylor armor for the time being, and satisfy his paranoia of preventing Taylor getting shot from a stray bullet. Or stabbed.

He waited for Taylor to fall asleep. Then he got to work.

The Batter went to the kitchen, picking out the sharpest knife he could find. He then tracked down one of Taylor's mothers old sewing kits. Finally, a spare towel from the bathroom.

He made his way down to the basement of the house.

Batter stripped out of his clothes, in nothing but a pair of boxers. He put his clothes down on a separate space of the floor, along with his bat. He picked up the kitchen knife.

He put the knife against his left arm, which was in Bad Batter form. He focused his mind. Channeling his power into something other than a bat was hard, but not impossible.

The Batter carefully channeled the shadowy aura into the knife. When he was sure it would cut, he proceeded to **skin himself**.

It was not pleasant. At all. Each cut, every white strip of skin removed, Batter had to hold back hissing in pain. The basement floor around the Batter was getting covered in the inhuman blood of the Bad Batter.

At this point, there was now a very large pool of black blood covering the floor. It smelled horrible.

No patch of his 'real' skin was safe. After changing his limbs' form into parts of the Bad Batter, he carefully finished up his arms, each side at a time. He'd then do his legs, and eventually reached his torso. It was a physically and mentally taxing exercise. He had to not yell in pain, so his Player (or her dad) didn't wake up and come downstairs, and at the same time, make sure he didn't go full Bad Batter form, fighting against his instincts.

If he failed, and turned into Bad Batter, it would not end well. For anyone.

Taylor better appreciate this. The last thing he needed was her getting shot because she wasn't wearing anything bulletproof. Why she couldn't just stay home was beyond him. Naïve hero complex.

He didn't have the heart to shatter that what was left of that innocence yet. The Batter would just have to **purify** any serious threats, while Taylor fought the less deadly ones.

Finally, he finished. Batter observed his handiwork. There was a pile of bloody white skin pieces of various lengths and sizes on the floor. All bulletproof and blade resistant.

His limbs and torso had reverted back to their fake human form, but he could still feel the missing skin all over his body. Just had to endure the pain a little longer.

He reached a hand out. It disappeared partially into what appeared to be thin air. He pulled out a piece of silver flesh. He opened his mouth, now full of very sharp teeth, and bit down on it and chewed. He could feel the CP being restored to his body.

He spammed **[Save Second Base]** for the next few seconds, healing his wounds.

Batter looked at the large volume of black blood he was sitting in. He'd have to use the internet to find out how he could properly get rid of the mess before Taylor or her dad came down here from the smell.

And delete the web history when he was done. Taylor did not need to see "How to get rid of large amounts of blood" in the search history.

After using a towel and cleansing the pieces of skin and himself of blood, Batter picked up the thread and needle set he came downstairs with. Sitting down on a couch he found down there, He applied the aura to the needle and picked up various pieces of **his** skin, and began to sew.

It was funny, in a way. Looking at the Batter, the last thing you'd expect him to be able to do was sow clothing. He learned it from Vader Eloha. His wife. Well, she was his wife once, anyway.

Those were happier days. Before everything was ruined. The Batter sighed as he silently continued his work.

After a few hours or so, he finished.

A baggy white hoodie/sweater, bulletproof and knife resistant. And a matching pair of pants. Using an existing pair of pants Taylor already owned, he tailored them for Taylor's size. Heh. Funny.

He pulled apart several of the jacket interiors that the Herbert family owned to get at the soft insides to add to the skin jacket and pants so it wouldn't scratch against his Player's skin. Batter even sewed pockets into it. How thoughtful of him.

It was crude, but it would work. He put the jacket made of his skin on. A little stiff, but he was sure it would soften up after going through the wash a few times.

Now, here was the tricky part. He needed to go out and procure a few things before he could present the makeshift armor to Taylor. Leaving the jacket and pants in the basement and putting his clothes back on, he departed the basement and proceeded to go to the living room. Batter overturned the couch pillows, and took out the money he'd "liberated" from those gang members. Taylor would disapprove of his 'theft', but money was money.

He left the house, and walked to the local convenience store. It was very late at night, so no civilians were on the streets. Batter walked into the shop. He had unequipped his bat, so that the owner didn't think he was trying to rob the store. The person manning the register gave him a weird look, but didn't comment. Batter ignored him.

Browsing the shelves, the Batter picked out some black and orange spray-paint and a lot of canisters of air freshener. He brought his purchases to the counter. The guy looked like he wanted to say something, but Batter beat him to the punch by dropping a couple twenty's on the counter. The guy, clearly not knowing how to properly react in this situation, robotically typed into the register, and took his money.

The Batter got change. Delightful.

Without incident he left the store and made his way back home. Home… When had he started thinking of it as that? Batter shook his head. It didn't matter.

Getting back down into the unpleasant smelling basement, Batter ignored the large amount of blood that happened to be his on the floor. Shaking the spray paint, he sprayed the jacket and pants black. He drew an orange X on the back of Taylor's jacket, so it would match her gloves.

Batter then proceeded to unload a year's worth of air freshener on the garments of clothing to get rid of the stench.

Batter left the clothes in the living room, so they wouldn't get the coppery smell of blood on them. Collapsing on the couch, he turned on the TV, turned the volume down, and proceeded to watch the late night news channel.

When Taylor woke up, he could give the clothes to her. Watching the drivel on TV, The Batter drifted off to a dreamless sleep.

In the morning he awoke to Taylor poking his cheek. She tilted her head and smiled. Batter rubbed his eyes and sat up.

"I've decided on a cape name."

-"Oh?"-

Taylor puffed up her chest and proudly proclaimed-

"Cordes."

 **"** **Cordes" means "Strings" in French.**

 **The Batter doesn't fuck around. If his Player needs armor, she's getting armor. Batter's no Parian, but the jacket and pants actually don't look half bad. Can't see the stitches with all that black. Might be a little stiff at first, but Taylor will break them in.**

 **Taylor, I think the Batter could take the Triumvirate. In Bad Batter form.**

 **If you're disgusted at the skinning part, good, that's what I was aiming for.**


	10. Chapter 10

**10** **th** **chapter!**

 **When I started this I didn't think it would get this popular.**

 **Look at all those favs and follows. So beautiful.**

 **Brings a tear to my eye.**

 **I have discovered the Horizontal line! (I think)**

 **GrumpyCat45: I think you're thinking of explosions. Just getting shot or stabbed isn't going to make the threads budge. I doubt he'd let Taylor be fired upon by a row of AK's. The Batter did a good job. Besides, *Puts on a tinfoil hat and does jazz hands* it's magic~~~**

 **(Not really)**

 **Edale: You know, I think I read about that somewhere… And yes, The Batter operates on if it won't harm her, she doesn't need to know basis. The Buffalo Bill comment made me crack up.**

 **Ghest: I gotcha. *Thumbs up***

 **jdboss1: I'm glad you're enjoying the story. I don't intentionally go out of my way to make the author notes long, it just kinda happens.**

 **Suzunaan: When I was looking for a name for Taylor's cape persona, I didn't look too deeply into the meaning when I was picking one. "Strings" sounded the least villainous and edgy amongst my options at the time, and I chose it. Threw it into Google translate and BAM. Though, the hanging meaning is rather appropriate, seeing as you kill everyo- *cough, cough* I mean, "purify", almost everyone in OFF. Changing it would be annoying at this point, so we're rolling with Cordes.**

 **This story will go OFF the charts when I'm done with it.**

"Text" belongs to Taylor, our lovable hero. And also, everyone else.

-"Text"- belongs to The Batter, a surprisingly competent baseball player.

 **"** **Text" belongs to all the monsters. And emphasis. Gotta love that emphasis.**

Purifying Brockton Bay

Chapter 10 – Cat's Out Of The Bag

* * *

 ** _[Recipient has gained a new ability available for download.]_**

 ** _[Notice: this download cannot be refused.]_**

 ** _[Player Conscious Migration (Zone -1) has been added to queue.]_**

 ** _[Installing…]_**

 **{Play OFF OST: Fourteen Residents}**

Taylor woke up. And then realized she was not in her bed. Too stiff. Opening her eyes she found that she was lying on a white floor. A sense of dread making itself known in her psyche, Taylor hesitantly got up.

She was, once again, in Zone -1. More specifically, the meeting room.

Taylor did not ever want to come back here again. Unfortunately, it seems fate has other plans in store for her. She was at a loss at what to do. The last time Taylor came here, The Batter had pulled her in. He acted weird and creepy sometimes, but she didn't think he would sneak into her room while she was sleeping to pull her into this place. So far, he had been nothing but subservient and respectful to her. Pulling something like this would be very out of character for him.

 **"** **My my. What do we have here?"**

Spinning around, Taylor found a cat. More specifically, a disturbing cat. It reminded her of Valerie, what with its reversed color scheme of having black fur, white pupiless eyes, and a large head. But instead of buckteeth, this cat had a full blown grin.

A rather disproportionately large, and toothy, grin. Taylor wasn't even sure she could even smile that wide herself. Briefly, she thought of the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland. If said children's story was a written by the Brothers Grimm instead. Despite the fact that she was looking down upon the 'cat', Taylor felt as if she were being carefully appraised by a greater being.

 **"** **As there seems to be a rather concerning lack of living beings in Zone -1 at the moment, I shall assume you are not a figment of my imagination, but rather, a pleasant hallucination."**

The words were drawn out, with emphasis placed on each word. The cat's voice was smooth, and had a cultured tone, making it very pleasant to listen to. It drew Taylor in, making her hang off every last word out of the "cat's" mouth.

 **"** **Nevertheless, I will introduce myself. I am The Judge, and I am practically dying to know your name, dear hallucinatory interlocutor."**

The "cat" turned its head left to right, as if looking for something.

 **"** **How odd. It appears The Puppet isn't present. Rather concerning, don't you think? But that, at the present is irrelevant."**

The "cat" jerked its head back, staring into Taylor's eyes with it's soulless white voids.

 **"** **What, my esteemed hallucinatory visitor, is your name?"**

Taylor did not know what compelled her to answer with her full name, but she replied-

"Taylor Anne Herbert."

 **"** **Even though you should be but an inexistent apparition in my eyes, let it be said that I am delighted to meet you as well, dear Taylor Anne Herbert."**

The cat made a coughing noise one might make to avoid a faux pas. He tilted his head in a manner that telegraphed curiosity.

 **"** **Well, this is quite strange. I've never had the experience of ever talking** **directly** **to a Puppeteer in all the previous timelines before. Truly a wonder at what might happen when you're dead."**

Taylor wasn't fazed at the cat's casual admittance of its death. She had gotten enough context from Valerie to conclude that it was unlikely she would meet anyone 'living' here.

 **"** **I do believe this is the part where The Puppet would say that you are in need of my services. Despite the fact that this probably isn't necessary, I shall repeat the script for the sake of nostalgic value."**

The 'cat' cleared his throat. Taylor was getting less scared and more weirded out by the second.

Why was everyone in this infernal place so far, so… off?

 **"** **Many people are in need of my services, you know. Everybody loves cats. We rub ourselves against their legs and purr in the most insistent manner. They absolutely adore that."**

"Um…"

 **"** **But you are likely not looking for that kind of service. I… oh, enough of this. What could I provide for you, dear Player?"**

Without thinking, Taylor blurted out-

"What are you?"

 _Way to go Taylor, insult the inhuman being before you as a first impression._

Thankfully, said inhuman being seemed to take in in stride. The Judge chuckled.

 **"** **A very good question. It could be said that I'm merely a cat. But as for what I really am… well, what do you think?"**

Taylor pondered his question. So far the entity seemed to be reasonable. So it probably wouldn't kill her if she answered with something that it might interpret as insulting.

"Well, you did say you were dead, so maybe… a spirit taking the shape of a cat?"

The 'cat' stared at her. Taylor fidgeted nervously under its gaze. It chuckled again.

 **"** **Such straightforwardness. No tiptoeing around the subject are we? As for what I am… well, I'm what I look like. A dead cat. You've got it a little mixed up though. Not a spirit assuming the form of a cat, rather… a cat that is a spirit."**

Taylor, not convinced, pointed out the glaringly obvious.

"You can talk."

 **"** **So can you. Do you really find it such a difficult concept that I am capable of the same thing?"**

"It's not really something that's seen as normal."

 **"** **In what sense? Societal? You, Puppeteer, should know better than to fall in with bias. Perhaps every cat is capable of talking, only they choose not to."**

Taylor still wasn't convinced, but she decided to change the subject before the 'cat' stretched out this discussion. This wasn't doing any favors for her sanity. The 'cat' might tell her more about this place, and as she was unlikely to see him on a 24/7 basis like The Batter, Taylor had no reluctance to ask him some questions. Sensitive questions.

"Alright. I'm going to accept the fact that you can talk, and move on. What can you tell me this place?"

 **"** **This Zone didn't exist until very recently. Or has it been here forever? It's hard to tell. Being dead does horrors for your sense of time. However, what I can tell you is that looks can be deceiving."**

The 'cat' leaned forward, and spoke in a quiet tone.

 **"** **Do not let your guard down here, especially without The Puppet to defend yourself with. The large majority of the inhabitants of this place are… quite frankly, less than sane. Luckily for you, my dear Puppeteer, I happen to be one of the very few who have retained their sanity."**

Gloomy and dark as she expected. Taylor was lucky that this "Judge" character seemed reasonable. Still too vague however.

"Could you give me a… more in-depth explanation? A little history?"

The Judge made a loud purring noise.

 **"** **But of course my dear. It's not like I have anything better to do anyway. You might want to take a seat though, it's quite the tale."**

The cat, with an action that a similar looking cat a few months ago preformed, pointed with his tail.

 **"** **There's a chair right there. It would be a shame to not use it."**

Taylor turned her head. Sure enough, an ordinary looking armchair was sitting innocently in a corner. Just like that podium a few months ago, it had seemingly appeared out of thin air. Walking over to it, Taylor sat down. The Judge following her, sat down on his front paws.

 **"** **Now then human, have you ever heard of the phenomenon known as** **The Collapse** **?"**

Taylor hadn't heard of such a thing ever before in her life. The closest idea that sprung to mind was the Great Depression of 1929 to 1939, but she think she would have heard about nightmarish creatures involved. Taylor shook her head as a response. The cat cleared its throat.

 **"** **The Collapse** **was an event of mystery. Once, this world was chock-full of life. Then, one day, an undocumented calamity struck. No one knew what happened that day. None who truly witnessed it lived to tell the tale. Most of what we know were from old journals which had panicked writing from humans in them. The entries were never finished, and left much to the imagination. Every journal, at a precise time, always stopped before something of importance could be written. It could be in the middle of a sentence, the beginning, or end. Always when they were about to describe a detail about the event."**

The Judge's smile became strained.

 **"** **It was if they had been silenced on purpose."**

Fascinating. And slightly worrying. But-

"What does this all have to do with Zone -1?"

 **"** **Everything. Seeing as it's the reason this place exists. Well, before the world ended for good."**

Taylor looked around. That could be plausible for the dreary appearance of this place. But wasn't this supposed to be just an aspect of her power? Why have such a mysterious history? There shouldn't be a history at all, it should just… exist. She decided to ask about the rather concerning fact about the world ending before addressing the history-that-should-not-be issue.

"The world ended?"

 **"** **It did. Before the end, the world was dying a slow painful death. A certain figure sought to end the world for his own selfish purpose. I stopped him many times, but eventually, a different Puppeteer, one who had no hope for a future, aided him in bringing me down. The world ended shortly after my death."**

Wait. If Puppeteer was just another name for Player-

"There's more than one Player?"

The cat's smile grew wider, if anything.

 **"** **Did you think you were the only one? No. There have been many, many Puppeteers before you. Though you are the only one so far to have interacted with us so… vividly. Usually we can't hear or see them, and the large majority of us don't even know that your kind exist."**

His smiled soured.

 **"** **No, we always see the tool. The Puppet."**

The Judge looked back up at Taylor.

 **"** **You truly have no idea what I am rambling on about, do you?"**

Taylor blushed a little in embarrassment.

"Uh… Well. No, I don't."

The Judge nodded his head.

 **"** **I thought not. Truly a strange place you hail from, Puppeteer? Your scent is… different. Exotic, even. Add in the fact that there are no humans left where I come from and what comes together… a quite interesting picture indeed."**

Taylor frowned.

"What are you getting at?"

He chuckled.

 **"** **What I'm saying my dear, is that I, and others like me, are from an alternate dimension.** **I am not human. You will find that no one here is. Humans, in their base form, no longer exist where we come from."**

"We as in…"

 **"** **Me. The Puppet. And the others."**

Taylor felt a chill down her spine.

"I thought this was all part of my power. That this place is a pocket dimension of sorts, dependent on me."

 **"** **No, my dear. Not at all. We are very much independent without your… influence. If you were to… perish, say, this would all still remain."**

The revelation of that fact greatly unnerved Taylor.

"Then… what about The Batter? He originally pulled me here. How does he fit into all this?"

The Judge's eyes, formerly half closed out of laxness, snapped open at the mention of The Batter. He lost his smile. An oppressive aura began to fill the room. Taylor could feel it pushing down on her, like a child was sitting on her chest. The Judge spoke his next question, more of a statement really, in an alarmingly neutral tone.

 **"** **What about The Puppet?"**

Taylor had already guessed that Batter was this Puppet figure, but talk about a loaded question. Taylor couldn't quite get a grasp on what emotion was hidden in The Judge's voice, but something clued her in that whatever it was, it was not a happy one.

She hesitated for a few seconds. Then reluctantly, she asked…

"Who is he, no, what is he?"

The Judged closed his eyes and sighed. The sudden tension disappeared as quickly as it came.

 **"** **He is… a Monster. I use that term both figuratively and literally."**

That seemed a bit unfair. The Batter had been nothing but kind to her.

"I get that he isn't huma-"

 **"** **You don't understand my usage of that word. What you think is a mere projection is in fact, a harbinger of death and destruction, held in check only by your will."**

Ice flowed into Taylor's veins. She immediately grasped the connections, the loose ends. It all fell together like the final piece of a puzzle game. The Batter ended the world of this place?

"Why. Why did he… end the… this world? And how?"

The Judge grimaced.

 **"** **That… is an even longer story. One that you are not ready to hear. But know this. Despite all his actions, The Batter is not necessarily evil**. **Just… A broken man. Very broken. He's fought for so long, it's the only thing he truly knows anymore."**

"He saved me."

 **"** **Likely out of want for a purpose."**

"The Batter has been nothing but kind to me."

 _If a little unsettling_ went unsaid.

 **"** **You should worry not for your sake, but those of your enemies. Or anyone he should perceive as one."**

A faint noise sounded off outside the room. It sounded like… a train? The Judge glanced absentmindedly out one of the doors of the building.

 _Click-Clack_

 **"** **Our time grows short. It seems that you are close to waking up."**

Taylor's vision was starting to blur. The train in the background seemed to be getting closer.

 _Click-Clack_

"I still have questions."

 **"** **And I'm afraid that I cannot answer them for now. But fear not, for I feel that we'll be seeing each other again soon enough in the future. Until then, farewell."**

At this point, The Judge was a smudge of black in Taylor's vision. His voice was still as clear as ever, though. The train sounded like it was only a couple meters from the door.

 _Click-Clack_

 **"** **Before you go, I do have a bit of advice for you. Keep a close eye on The Batter. He will not harm you, but it is not a good idea to let him run around to do as he pleases."**

Before she could respond, everything went white.

 _WOOooOOOH!_

Taylor woke up covered in sweat.

* * *

 **Side note: The Judge is an almost omniscient being, able to slightly break the forth wall, just like in OFF. When he breaks it, it is usually in referring to the Player. The only other figure in OFF that can do this is Zacharie, who knows what's in a readme file when you get the game. The Batter is affected by the 4** **th** **wall. He obviously knows about The Player(s), but that's it.**

 **If you don't get the animosity between The Judge and The Batter, a comparison would be that The Judge is Sans and The Batter is Chara. One is trying to avenge, and the other is trying to destroy.**

 **And this is only the second comparison I've drawn with Undertale so far.**

 **Whatever. It's a good comparison.**

 **This took forever to write, not because of writers block or anything, but because of all the dialogue. I had to dig deep into the crevasse that is my brain to write stuff that actually sounded halfway decent.**

 **And my busy life. I'm trying to aim for at the latest, updating every Thursday or sooner. Don't count on it though. Expect my update schedule to be random.**

 **I also had to remove a section as I felt it made the story progress too fast.**

 **Just as a disclaimer, The Collapse, in case you haven't figured out by now, is something I made up as a plot device, since OFF hints at its world being Earth once, but never gives a proper explanation.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Well, I only missed last Thursday by a few days. Better late than never. Blame the fact I got writer's block when writing part of this chapter.**

 **Hey look, this chapter is 5000K+ words.**

 **Taking the advice of a recent reviewer, I've been looking at the formatting of other popular Worm fics. After doing some research (reading), I've decided to punt the part where I answer reviews to the bottom of the page, so you viewers don't have to drag your eyes through extra lines of text before you actually get to the chapter itself.**

 **The Author Notes are still here though. An absolute tragedy, I know.**

 **I check reviews before I post a chapter, so I shouldn't miss anyone. So if you've reviewed recently and are just dying to hear my answer, check the bottom of the page at your own risk.**

 **You might accidently read the end of the chapter. Not my problem.**

 **P.S. There is a very important note near the bottom of this chapter. See to it that you read it before you comment.**

 **And recently, it has come to my attention that The Batter has been acting rather OFF.**

 **(I'll be rectifying that, just you wait…)**

"Text" You know the drill.

-"Text"- Seconded.

 **"** **Text" Tripled.**

Purifying Brockton Bay

Chapter 11 – My World Ending Monster Can't Be This Homicidal (Part 1)

* * *

Taylor woke up covered in sweat. It slightly soaked her clothes, making them stick uncomfortably to her skin. As her eyes shot open, Taylor jolted upwards, sitting up in her bed. Mechanically, she wiped the sweat off her forehead using the bed sheets. She exhaled softly, reassuring herself it wasn't just a bad dream.

Well, that had been enlightening. The Batter wasn't a projection, but apparently was the equivalent of another Endbringer.

Her Endbringer, specifically.

Fuck.

Taylor put her face in her hands and let out a pained groan. She felt a slight headache coming on. Why couldn't she have gotten 'normal' superpowers, like flying, or shooting laser beams? Instead, she got saddled with what could be the forth Endbringer.

Just fantastic. Taylor might have been less inclined to believe The Judge, but it made sense now that she thought about it. Despite having shown no hostility whatsoever to Taylor, the Batter had this… **aura** … around him. An aura that had set off warning signals to a primal part of Taylor's brain.

She had long guessed he was neither human nor projection, but hadn't expected him to be comparable to an Endbringer.

And now that Taylor thought about it, just why was he dressed as a baseball player of all things?

Taylor reached for her glasses, only managing to stop the old habit halfway to her nightstand after remembering she didn't need them. Right, the Batter fixed her eyes. She pinched the bridge of her nose.

Some kind of symbolism maybe? His past life? Taylor doubted he really was a baseball player, given the whole harbinger of destruction thing.

He used a bat and dressed the part, sure. But baseball players don't typically trash tankers and treat it like an everyday occurrence. Plus a whole other number of reasons she could list.

Taylor needed answers. Now. And seeing as she wasn't sure if going back to sleep would send her back to Zone -1 and by that extent, The Judge, Taylor would have to ask the Batter.

Which was a worrying prospect. Taylor had absolutely no idea how Batter would react when she asked him. How could she go about asking him anyway? Good morning Batter, I know you ended a world. Wanna talk about it?

Yeah, no.

Taylor, shaking her head, threw the covers off her pajama clad body. She sat upright, idly swinging her legs off the side of her bed. Looking at the alarm clock, Taylor saw it was six in the morning.

Her feet touching the floor, she lethargically walked over to her desk. Taylor collapsed in the weathered old desk chair. Idly, she ran a finger across the faded colors. While waiting for her computer to boot up, she thought of how she could go about asking him. Should she go for the blunt approach, or try to insinuate she knew?

The computer having finished its boot up sequence, eagerly awaited for Taylor to login. She tapped the keyboard, entering her password.

The Batter would probably respond to the blunt approach better. If she tried to be subtle about it, it would either go over his head, or likely he would ignore it entirely. Taylor needed to be confident and ask him directly. Worst that could happen would be a very awkward conversation. The Judge did say it would be extremely unlikely that he would harm her, especially if he was masquerading as a projection just to have a purpose.

Ridiculous. That can't be all he just wanted to do, right?

Taylor, putting an elbow on the table, leaned into the palm of her hand and sighed. Okay, perhaps a short recap of the situation would be beneficial.

She triggered. The specifics weren't something she liked to think about often, but in that locker, she had triggered.

Taylor had fallen unconscious in that locker expecting to die. Instead, she woke up to a man with chalk white skin dressed in a baseball uniform standing over her. He introduced himself as The Batter, and referred to her as Player. He had saved her. Despite the fact that he was apparently an Endbringer of sorts, he still saved her, a random stranger.

Actually, how did he get to her school anyway? Wasn't he from another dimension, according to The Judge? Another question added to an ever growing list.

The Batter likely could have just ignored her and walked away. But he chose to save her and became her 'puppet'. In doing so, he had willingly thrown away his freedom and let himself be subject to the whims of a fifteen year old girl.

Taylor didn't know what to make of that, and even now it baffled her. If he really was as bad as The Judge had said, wouldn't he crave control over his own actions more than anything? She still didn't have a very good read on his character. Most of the time, the Batter was stoic with faint traces of a very dry sense of humor. He had stalker-like tendencies too. When Taylor had practiced with her strings operating a small model mannequin she had purchased from a store a few weeks in with her powers, the Batter had spent his entire time doing nothing but staring at her. Which in itself was weird to be subjected to, because his eyes were hidden behind the shadow of his hat at all times.

At first, this messed with her concentration greatly.

However, Batter had infuriatingly done this every time she practiced over the last few months, so Taylor had gotten used to his shrouded thousand yard stare by now.

She wasn't sure she should be proud of herself or worried.

If she didn't know better, one might have said the Batter have a… thing… for her. Taylor felt repulsed at the thought. Of course he didn't. He had seen her naked and hadn't batted an eye. Hell, she was the first one to even make a fuss about her being naked. The Batter showed no interest at all, which caused Taylor to feel both relieved and… disappointed? Her face heated up.

Shaking her head violently, Taylor derailed that dangerous train of thought before it could get any further and opened up a search engine on her computer to go to parahumans wiki.

She admitted her first encounter with the Batter hadn't been the best. Taylor had woken up in front of him stark naked. Stark nake- focus, Taylor! She had felt humiliated and indignant at the experience. However, her animosity towards the Batter had started to fade when he began searching for clothes for her. When she was waiting, Taylor had noticed the healed scars all around her body. Doing a quick feel of herself, she had gingerly touched her neck, which had a nasty scar on it. Discovering freshly healed scars of all kinds marking her body, Taylor had a moment of realization.

The strange man was likely the reason she hadn't died.

When the man had returned with clothes, having obediently preformed her request, Taylor realized she must have triggered. The man before her must be a projection of sorts, which explained his odd appearance.

Chalk white skin reminiscent of paper. It gave him an otherworldly glow in the uneven lighting of her school. Clad in a baseball player's clothes, a metal bat held ominously at his side, its color a steel gray. A stoic expression drawn upon his face, giving an air of an iron will and unbreakable resolve. A hat that cast a shadow on his eyes that never retreated or grew despite the lighting of the school. An aura of… wrongness… that seemed to cling to him lovingly. There was no way he was a normal human.

If Taylor had been being honest with herself, the Batter had slightly awed and terrified her with his appearance when they first met. He being a projection was the seemingly obvious, logical conclusion at that point in time. Evidently, it had turned out to be wrong.

Having realized she triggered had given Taylor feelings of excitement and anger. Excitement, because she was a parahuman now. Anger, because that bitch Sophia almost killed her.

Trying to drag up some sense of self confidence, Taylor thanked her projection. Her words came out as a stuttering, awkward mess but the being didn't comment on it. The (false) projection had stood there for a few seconds saying nothing, which worried Taylor because she might have wasted her breath talking to something that wasn't sentient.

Surprisingly, he responded. This reassured Taylor that he hadn't apologized from earlier just because she willed it.

That had indicated a high level of intelligence, maybe sentience. Unusual for most recorded projections, but Taylor was too distracted at the time to notice that fact until later when she researched other projection based Masters.

Anyway, one vague and cryptic conversation later, Taylor figured out she triggered as a Master.

Out of all the classification of powers Taylor could have gained, it had to be the one most negatively viewed. The later knowledge of learning that she could take over people's bodies hadn't helped either. She wanted to be a hero, dammit!

After such a stressful day, Taylor wanted nothing but to go home. So wearily, Taylor trudged home with her newly acquired projection, The Batter, in tow. Said walk home was one of awkward silence. She wanted to ask more of him but The Batter had seemed so unapproachable at the time.

It wasn't until Taylor had spent much more time with The Batter had Taylor realized she had nothing to fear from him.

Batter, despite his many oddities, was harmless to her. Despite her fears of him disobeying her due to his sentience, Batter paid attention to her every word and acted like an overprotective guardian.

He wasn't stifling in his presence, but Taylor somehow knew he was always watching her, keeping an eye out for her safety.

It was oddly adorable in a way. And slightly unnerving.

Taylor had dismissed it as normal behavior at the time for she thought he was just a projection, albeit an extremely intelligent one. Projections guarded their master, right?

Although, it turned out he wasn't a projection so why did he guard her so…

…

You know what, fuck it. Taylor wasn't going to continue that train of thought.

Right, she and Batter had left Winslow and arrived at her house.

Her father greeted her as she arrived home. Taylor had been forced to reveal the fact that she triggered, which as a result revealed Emma's bullying campaign against her. Saying her father had been furious would be an understatement. He was absolutely **livid**. She'd had to dissuade him from taking legal action for she had a feeling Barnes would choose his daughter rather than listening to her.

Then, after that argument was finished, her dad tried to get her to join the Wards.

Another argument. Thankfully, Batter didn't say anything.

After an awkward dinner, she had talked to her projection trying to get him to be able to familiarize himself with the concept of a computer, which the Batter had struggled with at first. After a while, he bade her goodnight and left her alone.

It took Taylor a few hours to fall asleep out of sheer excitement.

Taylor had awoken that morning to discover that the Batter hadn't been idle when she was sleeping. He'd gone and picked a fight with Glory Girl apparently. Though, from both his account and the video Taylor had watched, it seems Glory Girl fired the first shot, so Taylor wasn't as mad as she could have been.

Brandish had lost that fight by the way. New Wave was forced to release an apology to the parahuman (The Batter) attacked by GG on PHO to save face. Summed up, the apology basically said New Wave would drive it through Glory Girl's skull not to be so aggressive in the future and that it was a misunderstanding. Taylor almost felt sorry for Glory Girl.

Almost. But really, Glory Girl had attacked the Batter for no reason other than he looked like a bad guy.

Well, to be fair, in that getup he kind of did. Batter told her he didn't want to be recognized, which Taylor guessed made sense, but once again, there was probably something he wasn't telling her.

Yet another question. She was going to have to write a an actual list at this point.

Unfortunately, it seems Empire 88 had also taken an interest in The Batter. Kaiser himself of all people had commented on the PHO post with the video saying there was a place for The Batter in his gang. Unsurprisingly, when he commented, people went crazy. The thread was now locked as a result. That particular problem was going to rear its ugly head in the future, Taylor just knew it.

So thanks to the wonder of the Internet, the Batter was now largely seen as a maybe Nazi villain. People were calling him Bundesliga. Some German name for baseball or something, Taylor didn't care.

Taylor sunk her face into the desk. Her forehead connected to the wood surface with a light _thunk_.

Just fucking great. Thanks PHO. Thanks Kaiser. I hope you both die a painful death. She needed to fix that misunderstanding ASAP.

Why Batter, did you need to go exploring?!

Taylor didn't think he'd wander, especially on the first night she'd had him!

So after the incident, the Batter was basically on house arrest for the next few months.

Thankfully, Batter hadn't seemed to spite her decision, instead opting for lazing on her couch with an air of disgruntlement surrounding him. He didn't say anything that voiced his displeasure, but Taylor knew he had started getting antsy the first month in. Batter acquired a habit of pacing back and forth around the house when Taylor wasn't looking, stopping only when she noticed.

If he had been trying to make Taylor feel bad, it was a success. Though, Taylor guessed the intense staring could be a form of revenge. Hopefully she was right about that, because the alternative was that the Batter was a stalker of sorts. Hopefully, he didn't watch her sleep or anything. Not a really ideal situation, but hey, not like everyone could say they had an overprotective pet Endbringer guarding them.

Think positive Taylor. The glass is half full.

After a few months had gone by, Taylor felt like she was at a level to use her strings effectively. So Taylor finally let Batter out of the house and took the two of them to the boat graveyard, where they could test the Batter's abilities relatively undisturbed.

He didn't disappoint. The Batter had exceeded her expectations in all ways, and that was before he sunk a tanker. The rings which he called "Add-Ons" were highly versatile and had both proved and promised to be useful in the future. Especially Alpha. The other two… well Taylor felt kinda bad, but they didn't really have a nonlethal way of attacking. Sorry Omega and Elipson. She was pretty sure Omega's blurs would punch holes through armor like no tomorrow, so they should only be used for extreme situations. Elipson's orbs could be only be used on Brutes, because she was pretty sure anything else would be "exploded" for a lack of a better word.

Well, at least it wasn't like that was all the other two Add-Ons could do. They seemed less geared for combat anyway. Alpha was obviously an attacker, Omega a healer, and Elipson support.

Speaking of Elipson, Taylor should try those buffs out sometime. Assuming the whole conversation with Batter went well.

As for The Batter… whoo boy. Batter had been able to lift an empty dumpster with a little amount of difficulty. Taylor didn't know how much they weighed, only that a normal human had little to no chance of lifting one without help. Batter had only struggled in lifting it up at first presumably because of the cumbersome shape of the dumpster. Once he got it over his head, he had no noticeable difficulty in holding it, and was able to throw it easily.

Next, he apparently had a Changer ability. Presumably, the Batter turned into whatever he really looked like. Batter hadn't been enthusiastic to show her. Either he thought it would scare her, or it had some horrible side effect that he wasn't telling her. Calling it unsafe, and said she needed greater control over her strings for him to use it. That implied that he probably couldn't control himself in that form, given the fact that her strings usurped control of the body.

Just as well as he didn't then. Taylor doubted she could master an entity comparable to an Endbringer.

Actually now that Taylor thought about it, she had gotten a glimpse of his true form. Back in Zone -1 when she was there for the first time, the Batter had pulled her out. Before her vision went white (a color she was seeing a lot in her life lately) a large finger had touched her shoulder. Taylor hadn't looked at said finger, there wasn't enough time before she whited out, but she could tell whatever it belonged to, said owner was extremely large.

Maybe it was safe for him to be in his real form in Zone -1?

She wondered what he looked like. Wait she remembered something, like a distant memory surfacing-

 ** _$%^#%aN Y^$% &ENORMoUS &%I%&^$mONstEr &*%%E&^*reAChed*&%^( a hAnd^&%^&**) out to *%&*&%*(hEr._**

Augh.

Static filled her ears. **The mind grew dull and fuzzy.**

Taylor slumped in her chair, hands cradling her head. It throbbed without mercy, sending spasms of pain for the next few seconds. Taylor gasped, her voice wracked with pain.

It hurt. So… much.

What. What did she see?! She'd, she'd seen-

 ** _$% ^#I &$$BLOOD SOAKED STRINGS ENTANGLED THE ABOMINATION.&*%^&&^*)_**

Taylor hit the desk, her forehead connecting with the keyboard. Her eyes were dull, with drool leaking out of her mouth.

She was motionless.

 ** _[Warning. A fatal error has occurred. Preforming Diagnostic Scan.]_**

 ** _[Scanning…]_**

 ** _[Determined source of fatal error: Player attempted to access [REDACTED] memories.]_**

 ** _[Mental trauma has rendered current state vegetative.]_**

 ** _[Current state is unsatisfactory: will not accomplish The Objective.]_**

 ** _[Rewinding memory state. Destroying previous train of thought to prevent repeat of incident. Implementing false data.]_**

 ** _[Please wait…]_**

Taylor snapped out of her daze. Her face was smushed against the keyboard. Using her arms, she pushed herself off the desk and back into her chair. A strand of saliva was connecting her mouth and the keyboard. Gross. Taylor wiped her mouth, and attempted to remove the drool from her keyboard.

What had she just been doing? Did she fall asleep?

Taylor looked at her right hand which was holding a pencil. The hand holding said writing implement was on top of a post it note, the word STRIKER written on it.

Striker?

Taylor tried to remember what she'd just been doing? Oh yeah, going over the Batter's abilities, right?

Uh, so yeah, his Striker ability. Truly out of everything Batter had brought to the table, his Striker rating probably took the cake for being the most destructive. If he'd caused so much destruction with just a ball, Taylor would pity the poor bastard who was on the receiving end of that. She bet the sheer destructive force behind the blow could make even Behemoth pause.

The Batter probably could have survived a fight with the Simurgh after all.

Maybe she should have let him attend that fight.

Lastly his Mover rating. He could jump high and run fast. Simple, but Taylor suspected he could go faster than what he had shown and was holding back his true speed for lack of difficult opponents.

That was all his abilities, so now… The Judge.

An oddly charismatic cat which had greeted her when she woke up once more in Zone -1. He seemed trustworthy, but Taylor wasn't completely sure. The Batter told her the inhabitants of Zone -1 were dangerous. The Judge told her they were insane, but apparently he was sane?

Speaking of inhabitants, Valerie hadn't been all that bad actually, but had given off a very unappealing air.

But who to side with? The Batter, or The Judge?

Her savior who kept secrets from her consistently, or the newcomer who had told her a possible truth with flimsy evidence?

Ok, it wasn't flimsy, actually it made a lot of sense, but it seemed so out of this world.

Taylor spun around in her chair, idly seeing her clock. It read six forty five. She'd confront the Batter in a few minutes and get her answers.

She spun back around, focusing her attention on her computer.

Taylor had logged into the computer to check the list of names already claimed by superheroes, villains, and rouges.

Originally, she wanted to pick a non-villainous sounding name for her cape persona. Unfortunately, most of the good ones were taken. She didn't want to pick something uninspired or Villainous like Puppet-master or Player. If she picked Player, Uber and Leet would probably hound her to the end of her days trying to get Taylor to join them. Maybe something low-key like strings or paddle.

Paddle sounded dumb, so strings?

Taylor checked the list. Strings was taken by some low rated Master in Vermont. An idea made itself known in her brain. Ever since she triggered, Taylor had gotten increasingly good at speaking and understanding French.

Powers are weird. She got a baseball player/maybe Endbringer, multipurpose hula hoops, a master power, access to an afterlife place, and the ability to fluently speak French.

One of these things was not like the others.

Cordes. French for strings.

Yes, it would do just nicely. The name Cordes wasn't taken either.

Taylor pumped her fist.

Now that that was out of the way, time to get dressed. Taylor logged off the computer and proceeded to do just that.

When she had finished her pre morning duties, Taylor headed downstairs. There, in her living room, was Batter splayed out on the couch asleep. She could tell he was sleeping because the Batter snored, which was amusing mostly because he was so stoic all the time.

Taylor approached him. Stopping just short of the Batter's sleeping form, Taylor composed herself by taking deep breaths. Applying a smile that looked more confident than she felt, she poked him on the cheek.

One of the Batter's hidden eyes cracked open suddenly to look at her. Taylor successfully held back her flinch, anticipating a reaction like that. The yellow eye glared balefully at her for a few seconds and then closed, replacing itself by the eye black that seeped back to its previous spot like it was never there.

Slowly, the Batter stirred.

* * *

 **I was going to add the confrontation between The Batter and Taylor in here, but I think I've delayed this chapter long enough. I have an important test coming up this Saturday and it's going to take a large chunk out of my free time. Don't fret, because spring break is almost here, and I'll hopefully be able to get the next chapter out soon.**

 **But I have no idea what's going to happen, so hang in there viewers.**

 **Sorry for giving another relatively action-less chapter. But the whole Batter is a genocidal being issue has been left alone long enough and needs to be dealt with before any more progression can take place.**

 **It'll be challenging to write the confrontation ahead, but I'll pull through.**

 **Might be a little rough around the edges though.**

 **IMPORTANT READ THE TEXT BELOW THIS SENTENCE**

 **I'm getting this out of the way now before I have to write something like this in the future.**

 **Before any of you say anything, I'm not intending to ship Taylor and Batter. Mostly due to the fact that Taylor is a minor and it would have a completely different kind of creepiness factor I'm aiming for anyway. I'm planning for them to have a close relationship, but no romance. If it does somehow become a romance in the future, there will be no sex. Keep in mind** **I am not planning to have any romance between the two. I stress that point heavily, so don't make a fuss about it.**

 **Really, don't.**

 **The whole attraction thing Taylor has going for The Batter is primarily the result of him being the first male person that isn't her father she's interacted with in a 'positive' manner in a long time. He did save her. Also, she's going through puberty. Batter's abysmal understanding of social norms aren't helping either. He isn't intentionally trying to come off as a stalker.**

 **But yeah, Taylor has mixed feelings about the Batter. Also sorry if her personality and opinions on the Batter come off as slightly inconsistent. It's a work in progress.**

 **Oh hormones, how I'll never, ever miss those moments where you made my life awkward.**

 **Look, the main point is, I didn't write that part intentionally as a way of introducing a possible ship. I wouldn't be that unprofessional.**

 **Promise.**

 **I've spent too long talking about this. Moving on!**

 **The New Review Section.**

* * *

 **Edale: Telling you how the whole "I killed my wife and child" revelation is going to go down would be spoilers, sorry Eds. Until then, you'll just have to be satisfied by your imagination. I'd tell you, but the brackets would censor it.**

 **freshpeppers: What a review. Well, I did ask for a legitimate reason to criticize...**

 **Guess I got it. Here goes.**

 **About the whole ball thing, I was trying to make it seem comedic instead of realistically accurate. Yes, the ball would likely disintegrate in a real life scenario. And ruin Taylor's eardrums, harm her, the works. For the most part, I intend to be as accurate as possible. Unfortunately, I can't really change my wording on that part now, so it's stuck there.**

 **Do me a favor and just ignore real world physics for a minute on that part.**

 **The whole reason Batter is so laid back right now is that the fact that he did just complete his sacred mission, and is taking a break right now. I mean, if you had repeated something over and over countless times, you'd like a change in scenery. Remember, this version of Batter has feelings (*gasp*) and is supposed to be somewhat pitied in this fic. I know, he doesn't seem damaged, but I don't think The Batter killing his former wife and child over and over again was really healthy for his psyche. His steadfast pursuit of killing everything could be seen as a coping mechanism and his general lack of emotions as a way of distancing himself from the pain. From his point of view, he was ending the suffering of a dying world and its people. Hell, the Elsen needed drugs (sugar) to have the will to keep going in life.**

 **The Batter isn't a hero by any means, but he wasn't the real Big Bad of OFF either.**

 **I see him as a well-intentioned extremist. His method wasn't favorable, but just by playing OFF you know that its world has an expiration date that's quickly approaching in the not so far off horizon.**

 **The Elsen are broken souls who are overworked, abused and turn into smoke monsters when they are stressed which doesn't take much effort to do. The Guardians are corrupt. Dedan is abusive. Japhet's throwing a pity party and is waiting to be punished for his crimes. Enoch thinks he's a god. The Queen is HALPING by sending spirits that attack everything. The Judge is sitting on his ass doing nothing. All Zacharie wants is for you to buy his shit. Valerie's body is being inhabited by Japhet. Hugo isn't even introduced until the end of the game. Sugar (not the element) is confined in a basement and frankly, saying she has a few screws loose is an understatement.**

 **Something was going to break eventually. The outcome would be the same even if the Batter did nothing.**

 **But if you don't agree with my view, that's perfectly fine :) OFF is a game that can be interpreted many different ways. You viewers are just reading my take on the story.**

 **As for a lack of purification so far, he's playing nice and letting Taylor dictate his purpose in life at the moment. Remember, his primary purpose right now is protecting his Player and abiding by her rules. Namely, to pretend that he is a hero, and** **not** **kill people. His own wants come second. Taylor didn't think he was going to 'explore' his first night, which was how he got away with going after Emma. Don't worry, this fic is called "** **Purifying** **Brockton Bay" for a reason. You viewers will (eventually) get the metaphorical carrot of promised ultraviolence (read: purification) I've been dangling in front of your eyes.**

 **~Patience is a virtue~**

 **As for the Entities, well unless The Batter can explore space, I think they are kind of out of his reach at the moment. The systematic murder of every parahuman wouldn't be a smart move either. This iteration of Bad Batter is horrifically strong, but** **it's too early** **in the story for that kind of escalation. If this was a one shot, sure I'd do that. But this isn't, so no.**

 **If this was a one shot, basically what would go down is that Batter arrives in wormverse minutes after Taylor is shoved in the locker. He understandably isn't happy finding his new Player is covered in biohazards. Sophia, in her idiotic predator/prey mindset attacks him because she thinks Taylor just triggered. Unsurprisingly, what happens next is glorious escalation in which for anyone not Taylor, becomes a very, very, bad day.**

 **Maybe I'll write that one day, as an Omake. For the lack of Omakes recently, I really only make one out of the contents of the chapters. Also, doing one few every chapters would probably get annoying. I do have some good ones planned in the future though.**

 **For my excessive comma usage, I'm trying to avoid writing eye straining run-on sentences. Sorry, but they just seem to fit for me when I do it. I'll try to reduce my comma usage.**

 **As for bland sentence structure, beginner author here and thanks for pointing it out. I'll try restructuring some sentences that I think sound repetitive and boring in the future when I finish writing a chapter and am in the process of editing. Add a bit more detail.**

 **Your feedback is appreciated. (I need this stuff to improve. Don't worry, you're good.)**

 **I'll happily respond to reviews and criticism, but please go easy on me. Beginner, remember? Not everything I write is going to be perfect quality or accurate. It's not a question of** **if** **, but** **when** **I make mistakes.**

 **Also that title is 100% serious. No I don't care if it's in poor taste, I find it hilarious. A cookie if you get the reference.**


	12. Chapter 12

**I don't think we need the "text" thingies anymore. I'm taking them OFF until we need them.**

 **Oh wow, thingies is actually a word. Spell-check didn't kick in.**

 **Anyway, I've tried my best at making this part believable. Hope it satisfies.**

 **Sorry if the pacing of this chapter seems a little…**

 **...**

 **uh, off.**

 **I wasn't even trying to make a bad pun there. I've already fulfilled my quota today.**

Purifying Brockton Bay

Chapter 12 – My World Ending Monster Can't Be This Homicidal (Part 2)

* * *

Stirring, the Batter straightened from his lax position on the couch, sitting upright. Putting his right hand on the back of his neck, he stared at Taylor expectantly.

Taylor, with a smile that looked more confident than she felt, tilted her head.

"I've decided on a cape name."

The Batter, his face not shadowed for once, raised an eyebrow.

-"Oh?"-

With more fake enthusiasm Taylor thought she was capable of, she puffed out her chest and proclaimed her new namesake.

"Cordes."

Hunching over, Batter rested his chin on his interlocked fingers, the elbows balanced on his knees.

-"Strings? Well it's appropriate I guess."-

 _I guess?! Why that little- wait…_

"You know French?"

Batter stared at her with a blank expression on his face.

-"It's my first language."-

She quirked an eyebrow at him. The apocalyptic being from another world knew French? Before she could get a handle on her thoughts, an image of the Simurgh appeared holding a baguette. Twirling an exaggerated mustache and saying hon-hon in a horrible French accent. Taylor snorted.

Ah, that was really stereotypical and insulting of her now that she thought about it. Sorry French people.

The Batter stared at her unamused, almost as if seeing her thoughts. She flushed.

"A-ah, so who taught you it? French I mean."

 _Great topic of conversation, Taylor._

Unknowing of her internal plight, the Batter opened his mouth to respond but an answer never came. Instead, he blinked.

A dumfounded expression appeared on his face. Batter put a hand to his head, mumbling under his breath. Taylor started to feel concerned for him, but let him think in peace. After a few minutes, two or three at most, Batter looked back at Taylor.

-"I… don't remember."- The statement came out pained. Bewilderment and confusion practically shined in the Batter's eyes.

What could she say to something like that? Taylor was at a complete loss.

"What about…" Struggling, Taylor reached out mentally for something, anything.

Damn her lack of social skills!

A stray thought crossing her mental view, Taylor latched on to it with a desperate grip.

"Where were you born?"

-"I was born-"- he paused once more.

-"…"- A sweat drop comprised of a whitish liquid slid down his cheek.

The Batter was losing composure, which was alarming because he was the most stoic person she personally knew. Taylor suspected that the so called "Endbringer" had never once questioned his reason for existence. She couldn't imagine what a life like that could be like.

She was making bold assumptions here, but all Taylor had were a handful of facts to work with here. More than half of which's credibility was questionable and vague at best.

Gently, Taylor prodded with another question. Carefully, so she didn't accidently further upset the clearly agitated Batter.

"Batter."

He looked at her.

"Why don't you… tell me about yourself?"

The Batter looked away from her, looking to be deep in thought. This wasn't how Taylor expected getting answers would go, but they appeared to be getting somewhere.

-"I'm… The Batter."-

Taylor knew that already. But she didn't comment, knowing that Batter was trying to reassure, find himself. Best to let him tell his own story.

"What do you do, Batter?"

-"I…am…was assigned a sacred mission."-

"What was the mission?"

Mechanically, in a flat tone he replied-

-"Destroy the spectres that overstep the divine laws and decide to sow discord among the living."-

Progress.

"Would I be right in assuming these 'spectres' you refer to are ghosts?"

-"Yes."-

"How did you destroy them?"

-"Purification is the only way to vanquish the spirits."-

Purification. Taylor had thought that word ever since she had first heard the Batter use it. She suspected it alluded to killing, taking The Judge's words in account. Only, he didn't kill those gangsters even when he said the word, which meant that the word itself didn't trigger some mental berserk state in his mind that made him a killing machine. It also meant that he would follow her commands to the letter. That was good. Although…

 _Everyone in Zone -1 is apparently dead. But does that means they are spectres? No, the Judge implied that everyone was alive once, and the way Batter is referring to spectres likely means they pop into existence out of nowhere. Like video game enemies._

 _But how did The Judge and others like Valerie die? Did the Batter…_

 _He could have. But why? They were living, right?_

 _Maybe they got in his way._

"Who gave you the mission?"

-"What?"-

"You've said you were assigned a mission. Who assigned you it?"

 _A memory surfaced in the Batter's mind._

 ** _[You have been assigned to a being called The Batter.]_**

 ** _[The Batter has an important mission. Be sure that it's accomplished.]_**

 ** _[We will let you out in Zone 0.]_**

 ** _[Good luck.]_**

Every time he was assigned a new player, Batter always heard those lines spoken.

Aside from a faint crackling noise, Batter couldn't associate that 'voice' with anyone he'd ever met.

Wait, hadn't he made a de-

 _ **[I &^*%&^*%^#&^YT$%$^&%*%^#(Upg*^T$&^%$&^%Sys# &$%^^^%*()*%^$]**_

…What was he just doing? Right, the voice.

The Batter had no idea who the mysterious voice belonged to.

Batter simply replied-

-"I don't remember who it was."-

Taylor sighed, and rubbed her brow.

That implied that he was not fully responsible for his actions. Oh, Taylor was sure he wasn't entirely blameless, but there was no way the Batter decided to end his world just because of a whim, regardless of what the Judge said. Murderers aren't made overnight. Something happened to the Batter, made him decide to commit crimes Taylor hadn't seen. Even if he wasn't human, he acted human enough that the same psychological logic should apply.

There was no need in asking him what purification entailed. Given his character Batter would probably would give some answer that would justify his actions.

This changed things by a wide margin. Judging how expressive the Batter was now when he was usually stoic meant he was likely telling the truth. If he was a murderer, he wasn't a heartless killer, just a broken man as The Judge had said. He didn't even remember who assigned him that mission.

 _"_ _Sacred" mission my ass._

She needed a bigger picture. All she had so far where vague hints and facts she didn't that she know how credible they were. Taylor's theory could be wrong for all she knew. This was likely the best chance she'd get of squeezing a straight answer out of Batter. Composing herself, Taylor took the plunge into the unknown, and revealed her hand.

She inhaled deeply, startling the Batter.

"Batter… I… know you're not a projection. That you're not from my world at all."

The Batter was silent.

"Last night I woke up in Zone -1 and I met someone called The Judge."

One of his hands clenched tightly into a fist. Taylor twitched, but continued.

"He… told me things. About your world."

She paused momentarily.

"About you."

Shadows slipped out from under the Batter's hat, covering his face fully. Not even his nose or mouth was visible.

After a few minutes that seemed to stretch into hours, he spoke.

 **-"What did he tell you."-**

The statement was devoid of emotion like his usual tone, however it felt truly empty. No traces of any personality whatsoever shone in the statement.

Faltering slightly, Taylor strengthened her resolve and stood her ground.

"He told me that you ended your world. Did you?"

A pause.

 **-"…I did."-**

Looks like The Judge had been telling the truth about that after all.

"Why?"

The Batter shifted slightly on the couch.

 **-"It's a long story."-**

"We have time. It's not like we have anything planned for the day."

The Batter stared at her for another long pause. He tilted his head.

 **-"Why?"-**

"Why what?"

 **-"Why are you hearing me out? Shouldn't you be afraid of me? Of what I've done?"-**

"I've yet to see any reason why I should be afraid of you. All evidence about you being some kind of irredeemable monster have been told to me from other people. They are presumably biased."

Taylor took a deep breath.

"I want to hear your side of the story."

Dropping all pretenses of appearing human, the Batter's four crimson eyes stared at her out from the darkness. Taylor did not flinch, making it clear she wouldn't back down. A determined frown adorned her face. Slowly, The Batter's face shadow rescinded slightly, exposing his mouth.

 **-"…Such a naïve and generous Player. I do not deserve you."-**

Taylor felt a wave of irritation.

"Can you actually tell me what you've done, instead of being all dramatic and angsty?"

His four eyes blinked. Taylor blinked.

The Batter looked like he wanted to gape at her. If it were physically possible, Taylor would have gaped at herself just now. That statement had come out of nowhere and was unusually aggressive for her.

Awkward silence reigned in the room.

"Um… please?"

Taylor might have imagined it but she could swear she saw the corner of Batter's mouth twitch slightly.

No, it must have been her imagination.

The Batter make a choking sound that might have been a laugh, but that had died halfway in his throat. He quickly regained his stoicism.

 **-"I suppose I should tell you. Now that you know about what I am, there's no reason not to."-**

Taylor almost threw her arms up into the air. Finally!

 **-"The Collapse was an event-"**

Taylor waved her hand. "I've already heard about this from The Judge."

Batter looked annoyed at her interruption, but shrugged it off.

 **-"Very well."-**

Batter held out an open palm.

 **-"There were five zones. Zero, One, Two, Three, and-"** Batter hesitated briefly-

 **-"The Room."-**

"Wait, what about Zone -1?"

 **-"It is an imitation of Zone 0. The original doesn't exist anymore."**

Her question answered, Taylor sat down next to him. Batter seemed vaguely uncomfortable at her proximity to him, but continued.

 **-"Zone 0 is what you could call a "tutorial area". It mainly served as a way to get new players to get them acquainted in controlling me."**

"How many former Players have you had?"

 **-"Too many to remember. It's not like I ever saw them anyway."-**

"Surely your mission wasn't that difficult?"

 **"** **At the end, each Player was given a choice to side with The Judge or me."**

The Batter chuckled mirthlessly.

 **-"Guess who they picked."-** The amount of spite in that sentence was staggering.

Taylor was silent.

 **-"It's unfair you know. They didn't live in my world, why should they decide they have all the facts? That they can judge my actions? That I'm the "bad guy"? Deciding to be "heroes" at the last moment and slay the "monster". Hypocrites, the lot of them. They** **chose** **to continue aiding me to that point. They** **chose** **to take control over my body. They** **chose** **to let me kill those people. They could have** **chosen** **to walk away at any moment."-**

Well if anything this proved her theory that Batter wasn't just a heartless monster. That was pure frustration there. And that emphasis on chose, rather choice…

The Batter probably didn't like being subjected to the wills of others. Unable to truly have a say in anything.

 **-"This continued endlessly. Over and over until one timeline, a Player decided to side with me."-**

A grim smile adorned Batter's face.

 **-"I didn't think killing The Judge would ever feel so satisfying."-**

Taylor shifted uneasily at his casual admittance of murder, but she mostly held back her discomfort from being shown.

"Why did you and The Judge fight?"

 **-"He wanted to prolong a dying world, in hopes for a future that would never come. I wanted to take mercy and put it to rest."-**

The Batter sneered.

 **-"Don't be fooled by his mannerisms or appearance. He's just as guilty as me."-**

"How so?"

 **-"He sat there and followed the script every single timeline. He's strong enough actually do something meaningful, but he doesn't. Instead, I always had to listen to him stroking his ego at the end while he gave me a brain aneurysm and killed me."-**

He leaned closer to Taylor. Leaning away slightly, Taylor noticed the Batter's teeth had slowly grown pointed and looked extremely sharp.

 **-"Do you know how painful your brain exploding is? Spoiler. It isn't pleasant."-**

Thankfully, Batter got out of Taylor's personal space after that comment.

 **-"Idiot Judge. There was no future. You think the Elsen are, were going to do anything without instruction? They are useless."-**

"Elsen?"

Batter scoffed.

 **-"Altered humans, they appeared shortly after The Collapse. Elsen are afraid of anything that moves and are completely hopeless. They barely even have the will to live. If The Queen and The Guardians hadn't rounded them up, no doubt they'd have killed themselves long ago."-**

"The Guardians?"

Unseen by Taylor, Batter's silhouette on the wall behind the couch, there from the light of the TV, flickered briefly.

 **-"There were three. First was Dedan. He was in control of Zone 1. Next, Japhet. Zone 2. Last, Enoch. Zone 3."-**

 **-"Originally, they all started out with good intentions."-**

Batter bared his teeth.

 **-"The allure of power corrupted them all."-**

"What about The Queen?"

The Batter's silhouette started to spasm violently.

 **-"That women is insane. She filled the world with spectres. Spectres that attacked all, and only added to the problem."-**

"Are you okay Batter? You sound like… there's something personal between the two of you."

 **-"** **It's nothing you should concern yourself with** **."-**

 _If Taylor had bothered to look behind her, she would have seen the Bad Batter's silhouette on the wall._

Uh-oh. Red flag detected. Whatever it was that happened between them, it hadn't been pretty. Batter was squeezing the side of the couch, the wood cracking slightly at his grip.

Time to change the subject.

"So, what happened to the Guardians?"

 _NO ME OF ALL THINGS WHY DID YOU ASK THAT-_

 **-"What did you think happened? I purified them. Each and every last one."-**

Batter's crimson orbs stared deeply into Taylor's soul.

 **-"None of them were innocent. They all deserved it."-**

 _Well, at least he didn't go into detail._

"How… did you end your world?"

 **-"The world only continues to exist if The Switch is on."-**

 _The Batter's expression was one of complete apathy._

 **-"I turned it off."-**

The Batter didn't say anything else after that statement.

Taylor was pretty sure The Batter hadn't told her everything, but it had given her a clearer picture. Right, so Batter's world had suffered a catastrophic event referred to as The Collapse. Humans declined, and in their place came the Elsen, who were apparently weaker versions of humanity. Likely the beings such as Batter and The Judge had appeared around the same time period. The entities known as the Guardians and The Queen served as the Elsen's protectors, but eventually went corrupt according to The Batter, by a "position of power". Specters had appeared throughout the various zones, presumably attacking the Elsen. Then, some weird stuff happened with the Batter (He was assigned a mission by someone unknown) and he proceeded to go through each zone, killing the Guardians and presumably the Queen. At the end of his "sacred mission" he reached something called The Switch and fought The Judge. Apparently they had fought many times over or something. Batter eventually got lucky with a Player and killed the Judge and then, THE END.

A messy summary, but everything made much more sense now. But of course, she was forgetting one of the biggest elephants in the room.

"Batter, how did you get here?"

 **-"A deific toad in human skin transported me here. That's all you need to know."-**

Taylor's eyebrow twitched.

"Is that supposed to make sense?"

 **-"No."-**

Silence wedged itself between the two of them. Eventually the Batter broke the silence. His tone was filled with… melancholy?

 **-"So… what will you do now? You know what I am. Will you cast me away for my sins?"-**

Taylor sat there, her face obscured by her hair.

"…Batter. You know what I think?"

Hesitantly, he looked at her, his face still mostly obscured by shadow. His extra eyes had disappeared, but his two remaining eyes were still a crimson red.

"You… haven't done good things. But you aren't as bad as you think. You could be a hero-"

 **-"I'm not a good person Taylor, much less a hero. I've killed people. I've doomed innocents. I ended my world. My bloodthirst is insatiable. I don't know how long it'll be before I accidently go too far and kill an enemy parahuman."-**

 **-"Meeting you was an accident. I don't deserve another chance. You should order me to kill myself, before it's too late."-**

 **…**

Did he think she was really going to give up on him that easily?

She had been bullied mercilessly by her former friend. No one would stand up for her.

The Batter had only wanted to do what he felt was right. His methods were most certainty not the best, but Taylor couldn't think of a better option in such a world seemingly devoid of hope. Taylor had never been there, never experienced the place. She didn't have the right to judge him.

And in return for doing what he thought was right, Batter got screwed over again and again by the very people he entrusted his life too. He might have deserved it, but it was the principle of the matter.

It was just like how she got screwed over by the school. Teachers were supposed to be someone she could confide in. Instead, they ignored the situation between her and her bullies.

It was strange comparing herself to a murderer, but Taylor and The Batter were strangely alike in the getting screwed over by other people category.

No matter how hard Taylor tried to feel disgusted at The Batter, she felt only pity.

"You saved me and in doing so, chained yourself to me. You willingly threw away your chance for freedom."

The Batter looked away.

Taylor pointed at him.

"That there shows you that you can feel compassion towards others. You could redeem yourself by saving others."

 **-"I only helped you because you were a Player."-**

 _I'm... afraid of the dark._

 **Liar.**

"Bullshit. From what I've heard coming out of your mouth, you hate Players. If it were really only for that reason you would have let me die."

 **-"…"-**

Slowly, Taylor reached out a hand to Batter's shoulder. She rested it gently against his baseball tunic.

"I'll give you a chance at redemption."

For the longest time, The Batter sat, motionless.

A white tear slid down the Batter's face.

-"…Thank you."-

* * *

 **I hope this chapter came out alright. I've never written something like this before, so it might not be the best emotional sequence ever.**

 **Hey, I tried.**

 **I know there's a lot of …'s. They primarily serve to make me avoid writing too many "The Batter / Taylor paused" line variants.**

 **Just a disclaimer, Batter actually has a personality in this fic, so he's OOC in a way.**

 **His canon character (Cold, unfeeling, basically a sociopathic killer robot) is suited only for a one shot, because canon Batter would step on a lot of toes (Basically every hero and villain, including Taylor) and everything would spiral out of control quickly.**

 **Now, we can't have that, can we?**

 **I reject your canon Batter, Mortis Ghost, and insert my own.**

 **He still has sociopathic tendencies, don't worry. (Emma…)**

* * *

 **xbox432: Here, a cookie. For the sake of unoriginality, its chocolate chip.*hands said cookie* I didn't much as watch Oreimo as much as a few brief glimpses. What drew my attention was that first opening because the singers of ClariS have amazing voices. Though I noped out of there when I saw the wedding scene because I didn't think the show would actually take the incestuous relationship thing seriously. Eck.**

 **Edale: The story is told from the point of the 'Fake' people (Batter, Judge, Guardians, ect.), so for them, this is their reality.**

 **As for Sugar,** **My head cannon is that Enoch is her sugar dad-** **[Stop. Bad Author.]**

 **Ahem. What I meant was, Sugar could be the 'nice' part of Hugo's real mother while the Queen is the side Hugo doesn't like. I dunno really. Though apparently, she has a close relationship with Zacharie.**

 ***squints eyes suspiciously***

 **Eh, it's probably nothing.**

 **Gremlin Jack: Bruh chill. It's not like there's a chapter limit on this fanfic. The Batter is an unreliable narrator, so I'd thought I'd give Taylor's perspective.**

 **89ingenting: Will probably do an interlude and stuff with Danny eventually. Who knows, maybe he'll be important in the future.**

 **It's a little late, but I just realized I should have called chapter 2 "Spaceball".**

 **Damn, a missed opportunity.**


End file.
